Chapter 383: Driving Everyone Away

"Young Master, there's a constant struggle ahead in the dense forest, and the scent of blood is very strong."

"Dense forest?" The young man looked at the surface of Three-Heart Lake. "Did the crows mention a dense forest?"

He lifted his head and sniffed forcefully a few times: "The aura of Imperial Dew here is so rich. The crows weren't wrong."

The young man walked a few steps toward the lake, then jumped onto a large tree—the very one where He Lingchuan had previously set up his silk net—and lightly sniffed the air again.

Closing his eyes, his sense of smell seemed to "see" the shapes of scents. What he perceived was an unprecedentedly rich and widespread residue of Imperial Dew above the lake, even mixed with a few wisps of faint blood.

The young man opened his eyes: "Imperial Dew Paste?"

Things reverse when they reach an extreme. For his sensitive sense of smell, an excessively rich fragrance turned into its opposite.

Needless to say, that must have been the scent emitted by a paste even denser than ordinary Imperial Dew.

No creature could resist this craving that originated from the soul.

The young man's eyes glowed with an uncontrollable faint red light, but his tone remained normal:

"What could intercept Imperial Dew above the lake? It seems a significant amount has been collected. Wait, this appears to be the scent of a human." It was mixed with the fragrance of Imperial Dew and largely dispersed by the mountain ghoul wind, making it very indistinct.

However, thinking back, the lake surface was particularly open, unobstructed and unhindered, making it indeed a good location to collect spirit dew.

"Were people originally collecting Imperial Dew mid-air?" He turned his gaze to where the creatures were fighting. "But why are they fighting to the death over there?"

A subordinate replied: "Perhaps they were caught."

"That makes sense, let's go take a look." The crows had been yelling "Imperial Dew Paste" all the way. That substance was nothing short of a magnet, attracting countless competitors.

Spirit rain was a rare encounter that happened only once every few decades, let alone natural chunks of Imperial Dew Paste. That was truly the luck of winning the grand prize.

At this point, the victors of the dense forest battle were two monsters named "Laoshi". Their bodies were like jackals, but their heads could open like flower petals, from which whip-like tongues shot out.

These creatures were plants in their juvenile stage, unable to move when rooted in the ground. However, after becoming demons, they grew limbs, allowing them to pull themselves from the soil, roam the forest, and hunt. The size of prey on their diet would also continuously increase.

This was the same principle as ginseng babies and lingzhi steeds that could run wild all over the mountains, except these were a bit bigger, uglier, and had larger appetites.

They were slowly devouring the human corpses on the ground, one bite at a time.

As the black-clad young man and his subordinates approached, the two Laoshi immediately turned and let out warning roars, facing them.

This was a classic example of something too dreadful to behold or hear.

"Get lost!" The black-clad young man walked forward, completely unfazed. "Otherwise, you'll be killed without mercy!"

Scarlet light suddenly flared in his eyes, and the light around him dimmed as if black smoke coiled about him.

With each step he took, plants within a fifteen-foot radius rapidly withered, trees shed their leaves, flowers and grasses wilted, and even the fertile black soil began to turn pale and crack.

The tip of one Laoshi's front toe was also within this range, and it screeched, urgently retracting as if burned by fire.

That toe tip also withered, its pale green epidermis developing brown spots, like it had leaf blight.

The spots expanded, and the toe tip began to turn yellow.

This Laoshi had no choice but to bite off its own front toe.

Having suffered this loss, they began to understand the danger. As the young man walked forward, they retreated. Although they roared a couple of times, everyone could tell their bluster masked inner fear.

There was nothing they could do; they were severely countered by the opponent's divine power or attribute.

Smelling the Imperial Dew's fragrance, the two Laoshi drooled onto the ground, unwilling to give up. Yet, they still didn't dare to fight in the end, only turning around angrily and leaving, abandoning most of their prey to the black-clad young man.

Although they were transformed plants, they weren't truly blockheads; they knew when they were outmatched. Lingering any longer would only lead to certain death.

The subordinates quickly stepped forward to gather the spoils.

Soon, they were all beaming with joy:

"These two collected three bottles of Imperial Dew, excellent!"

"The belly hides of these two savage apes also contain a lot of good stuff, let me see how much... Bah, why is it fruit!"

Another person presented two leaves as if offering a treasure. The young man opened them to find a small piece of solidified Imperial Dew Paste inside, slightly larger than a fingernail:

"Which corpse was this found on?"

"That tiger." A subordinate pointed back; the tigress on the ground had already been half-eaten. "Half its teeth were pulled out, so it was easy to get it off."

The tigress probably couldn't resist and ate all the Imperial Dew it had obtained, leaving only a small piece of paste. That's why other monsters chose to directly devour its body to absorb the spiritual energy.

"This is the paste the crows mentioned?" The black-clad young man frowned. "It's far too little."

A subordinate cheerfully said: "There are over forty corpses here; searching them all should yield a good amount."

The dozen or so of them had collected for an entire night in Mountain Ghoul Valley, yet didn't gather even a third of what was here. Indeed, killing and plundering yielded quick returns.

The young man pondered: "Who was killed first? Can we find out?"

The subordinate gave a wry smile: "They all died within the last two quarters of an hour. It would be a bit... difficult to determine the order." Wasn't this putting them in a tough spot?

The black-clad young man noticed a mountain ghoul's corpse on the ground.

Now that the Imperial Dew had just passed, the monsters' targets for devouring would definitely prioritize other monsters. This mountain ghoul was just a large ape with no significant cultivation, which was why its corpse remained intact so far.

"How did an ordinary mountain ghoul die here, in a place where monsters and cultivators were fighting fiercely?"

Shouldn't ordinary wild beasts steer clear of such a chaotic battle? Or did this mountain ghoul try to take advantage of the chaos to steal some Imperial Dew and then get killed?

He squatted down and examined it. "It was bitten to death by a fierce beast."

There were several fierce beasts at the scene. Which one killed the mountain ghoul?

Suddenly, a white-browed crow flew down from a treetop several yards away, landing on a low branch and flapping its wings: "It was bitten to death by a fierce tiger! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"A crow?" The black-clad young man's eyes flickered. "Are you the ones spreading news everywhere?"

"Yes!" The crow folded its wings. "Someone snatched our Imperial Dew Paste, it was bigger than a duck egg! This mountain ghoul was his subordinate!"

Paste bigger than a duck egg? Everyone was moved.

Natural paste had a potency equivalent to a hundred times its volume in Imperial Dew liquid, and many other wondrous uses. No wonder these crows were furious; they'd won the grand prize only to have it snatched away.

Judging by its attitude, the young man likely realized: "This person isn't dead?"

"Two tiger demons attacked him; he controlled one and killed the other," the crow squawked. "Then a white crane arrived, and the person threw down the tiger corpse and ran into the forest."

"Ran away?" The young man's eyes flashed. "You lost track of him?"

"We can't find him," the crow said. "But to the west is a barren Gobi Desert, and to the east is Three-Heart Lake, so he could only have gone northeast!" It then described He Lingchuan's clothing: "He also wore a Nuo ghost mask."

A subordinate offered the black-clad young man an idea: "Young Master, shall we summon a mountain spirit to ask?"

"Probably not today." Mountain spirits are also monsters, and they won't respond to our summons on a day when Imperial Dew erupts. "Besides, we might not even be able to command the local mountain spirits."

The black-clad young man then took a purple-gold hammer from his bosom and shook it twice.

The hammer grew instantly upon exposure to air, becoming larger than a human head.

The black-clad young man inverted the hammer handle and struck the ground three times with the hammerhead, producing loud clanging sounds.

With the striking point as the center, shockwaves spread in all directions, causing the surrounding trees to rustle and shed their leaves.

However, this impact was relatively gentle, causing no significant damage. It merely dispersed the morning mist and shallow haze that enveloped the forest.

At this moment, the jungle was so clear it looked as if it had just been washed with water.

This was the special effect of the purple-gold hammer:

Barrier Breaker.

If there were illusions, deceptive spells, or even invisibility powers, a few shakes like this would force them to reveal themselves.

Evidently, the black-clad young man believed that the person who stole the Imperial Dew Paste had deliberately left the tiger corpse behind, while remaining hidden nearby, waiting to watch the conflict between the snipe and the clam, ready to emerge as the fisherman at the end.

Because if it were him, that's exactly what he would do.

His subordinates also fanned out, preparing for the capture.

One of them suddenly cried out in alarm, pointing behind the black-clad young man: "Behind you!"

It turned out a giant gray python, nearly three feet (one meter) in diameter, had slithered behind the young man unnoticed. It possessed powers of invisibility and camouflage, leaving no traces on the ground.

It had originally adopted an attack posture, preparing to ambush the black-clad young man, but unexpectedly, his three strikes with the purple-gold hammer shattered its invisibility power.

The colossal beast thus overtly appeared in the center of the clearing.

Seeing itself exposed, the giant python attacked immediately, moving so fast that the black spots on its body blurred into lines for those around.

The black-clad young man didn't even turn his head, simply stepping sideways to evade the strike.

The giant python changed direction with the momentum, aiming for his waist.

Unexpectedly, the young man's purple-gold hammer arrived, so naturally that it seemed the python had deliberately offered its head to the hammer.

Only a resounding "clang" was heard, exceptionally prolonged.

The giant snake was actually sent flying, its head smashing through a small tree.

That heavy hammer strike shattered its jawbone and severely dislocated its jaw, making it impossible to close for a while.

The gray python struggled to lift its head, but failed twice, as if suffering from a severe concussion.

The young man walked over unhurriedly, intending to smash the purple-gold hammer onto its head again.

As he reached the giant python, the latter suddenly lunged and wrapped tightly around him!

Its mouth was dislocated, rendering it unable to fight, but that didn't matter; a python's inherent instinct remained. Once it coiled around its prey, thousands of muscles would simultaneously exert force to strangle him on the spot!

"Young Master!" His subordinates rushed forward.

But the giant python, wary of the purple-gold hammer, held its head very high. Unless a horse-slaying saber arrived, no one could cleave its head.

"Step back!" the giant python roared. "Otherwise, I'll strangle him!"

Its scales were thick and hard, and its body often flashed with light, but even so, the barrage of cuts from the subordinates caused it immense pain.

Just then, the black-clad young man suddenly said: "You searched high and low for something, only to find it brought right to your doorstep."

"What does that mean?"

Before the giant python could understand, the young man opened his mouth and bit into its body.

His hands were bound, only his neck could move, and he could bite it with just a lowered head.