Without pausing to properly store the bronze mirror and spirit stones in his storage pouch, Meng Hao casually stuffed them into his clothes pocket, then leaped forward. Since spirit energy had manifested in his body, Meng Hao found himself much more agile than before; though still thin and weak, he now had more spring in his step.
Especially after his cultivation reached the first level of Qi Condensation, his leaps were even faster. In just a few dozen seconds, Meng Hao had caught the startled wild chicken. Once its wings were firmly grasped, the chicken stopped flapping.
"I wonder how Fatty is doing," Meng Hao mused, carrying the wild chicken. Thinking of Fatty, he was about to go find him to share some simple country dishes. As he turned, Meng Hao suddenly felt something in his pocket heat up.
Immediately after, the wild chicken he had caught, which had been quiet, suddenly let out a miserable shriek. Its whole body struggled violently, so powerfully that Meng Hao almost lost his grip.
The chicken struggled with extreme force and shrieked with immense misery, and as it struggled, its rear end exploded with a 'pop', splattering fresh blood everywhere.
This scene unfolded too suddenly, leaving Meng Hao utterly bewildered. He had been on the mountain for nearly four months, catching many wild chickens, but this was truly the first time he had seen something like this. Especially looking at the exploded rear end of the dead chicken, Meng Hao was astonished. He quickly looked around, but his surroundings were utterly silent, with no one in sight.
"What just happened?" Meng Hao shivered. The chicken had died a truly gruesome death, especially its rear end, covered in blood and flesh. One could imagine the immense pain it must have suffered at the moment of death.
Meng Hao took a deep breath, suppressing the tension in his heart. This wild chicken's death was too bizarre; Meng Hao even felt a chill run through his entire body.
"Something's not right." Meng Hao tossed aside the wild chicken with the exploded rear end, then took out the spirit stones and the mirror from his pocket. He remembered that just before the wild chicken's strange behavior, something in his pocket had heated up.
"It couldn't have been the spirit stones..." Meng Hao stared at the bronze mirror, his heart pounding, his eyes shining.
"Could it be..." Meng Hao's hand, holding the bronze mirror, trembled. At this moment, he completely disregarded finding wild chickens with Fatty; instead, he clutched the mirror and ran straight into the forest at top speed. He wanted to find a mountain beast to see if this was the culprit that made the wild chicken's rear end explode.
He dashed off. Before long, a deer appeared before Meng Hao, looking at him blankly. Meng Hao approached, immediately raising the mirror in his hand and shining it on the deer.
The blank expression on the deer's face immediately changed. Its entire body leaped up, letting out a desperate shriek as it tried to flee. The shriek was indescribable, like tearing out one's guts, making anyone who heard it imagine the immense pain and misery it was experiencing. But Meng Hao clearly saw that as the deer leaped, its rear end was struck by some invisible force, twice in quick succession, and the deer shrieked twice in agony. Before its body even hit the ground, its rear end exploded, and it convulsed and died.
Meng Hao stared blankly at the dead deer, then looked down at the mirror in his hand. After a long moment, an expression of unprecedented excitement and exhilaration appeared on his face.
"A treasure! This is definitely a treasure!!"
"It's just... this treasure is a bit strange. It likes to explode the rear ends of wild beasts..."
Although Meng Hao found it puzzling, his excitement now overshadowed everything else. He didn't care why this treasure was so bizarre; on the contrary, he was eager to find other wild beasts to test it on.
Along the way, Meng Hao grew even more excited, and the path he took was filled with the stench of blood...
It was the blood of ten beasts whose butts had exploded, dyeing the ground red.
Pop!
The thick-furred wild wolf in front of Meng Hao shrieked miserably. It was struck on its butt three times in a row, and when it finally exploded, its entire rear was a bloody mess.
An eagle swooped down into the forest to hunt. Before it could even fly back up, it let out a tragic cry, as if experiencing a nightmare it had never encountered in its life, its butt exploding instantly.
A fierce tiger, about the size of a grown man, pounced toward Meng Hao from the forest. While still in mid-air, its terrifying roar instantly turned into a tragic shriek. As it shrieked, half of its butt exploded. Perhaps because of the tiger's thick fur, it exploded five times consecutively.
"A treasure! Truly a powerful treasure."
Before he knew it, dusk had arrived, and Meng Hao was utterly exhilarated. He looked at the bronze mirror in his hand; throughout the day, no fewer than a hundred fierce beasts had had their butts exploded by this mirror and died.
Luckily, this place was nothing but wild mountains; otherwise, if all those beasts had been concentrated on a single peak, the stench of blood would surely have been overwhelming.
"But this mirror doesn't work on everything. Earlier, I tried it on pythons and river fish, and it didn't react at all to scaled creatures. On the contrary, the thicker the fur, the stronger the mirror's effect."
Throughout the day, Meng Hao had experimented many times, also discovering that keeping the mirror in his storage bag had no effect; it only worked when held in his hand. He even had a strange feeling that the bronze mirror in his hand seemed even more excited than he was when the wild beasts' butts exploded and they died. Even the rust on its surface seemed to dissolve, as if it hadn't been unleashed in years.
Dusk fell. Meng Hao had spent the entire day traversing the wild mountains. Now, as the night wind swept in, he took a deep breath. Still exhilarated, he intended to return to his cave dwelling along the path he came. After all, this place was teeming with wild beasts, and Meng Hao had even heard that demonic beasts capable of cultivation had appeared here before. Though excited, he was well aware of the dangers.
On his way here, he hadn't traveled fast since he was searching for wild beasts, but on the return journey, he focused solely on running. Meng Hao darted like a bird through the mountains and forests, crossing one wild peak after another. Not long after, the crescent moon slowly rose. With only three more mountains to cross before returning to his cave dwelling, a gust of hot wind swept in. Within that wind was a strong, pungent smell, which made Meng Hao halt abruptly. Sensing danger, he quickly retreated without hesitation.
Roar!
A roar echoed all around, almost simultaneously with Meng Hao's retreat. Following a hot wind, a fierce beast lunged forward. It was about the height of a man, resembling a monkey, with deep red eyes glinting with ferocity. Its entire body was covered in thick, sleek fur that hung down.
The fierce beast stared intently at Meng Hao with bloodthirsty eyes. Meng Hao's expression changed; looking into its eyes, his mind shook, as if his consciousness was being sucked away. Meng Hao also sensed cultivation fluctuations emanating from this fierce beast.
—Second level of Qi Condensation!
Meng Hao retreated again, his expression extremely grim. He knew that this was no mere wild beast, but a demonic beast, obviously drawn here by the pungent smell of blood from earlier in the day.
Time did not allow Meng Hao to think. The shaggy, monkey-like demonic beast suddenly leaped up, and in that instant, flames erupted around its body. This strange fire did not burn its fur, but cloaked the beast as it lunged straight at Meng Hao.