Chapter 365 - Dilemma

A bolt of blue lightning flashed in the forest at a terrifying speed. Even Peak stage Elemental Gathering realm experts who were proficient in movement techniques wouldn't be able to travel so quickly.

The bolt of lightning landed on a towering tree. Under the lush tree sat a black-clothed youth who opened his eyes. He was naturally Alex.

He had been running around the forest hoping to encounter the Rank 3 Demonic Crow or any other alternatives. 

But even after stretching his Spiritual sense to its extreme, Alex still could not find one. 

"Sigh, it seems my luck is terrible tonight. Other than three more Peak stage Rank 2 Demon Beast, I couldn't find any Rank 3 Demon beast after searching the forest for two hours." Alex couldn't help but blame his luck. He had gone quite deep into the Caragan Forest and even came across a tiny barbarian tribe, but he still couldn't find what he had come for. 

He finally decided to change his direction towards the west and search around the towering mountains that could be seen in the distance. 

Whoosh~

. . .

A long time after Alex left, an old man appeared out of thin air in the same location above the forest. The old man was enveloped in an eerie aura with many vengeful spirits around him. That old man was non-other than the mysterious shaman of the Romethra Tribe and beneath him was a crow, the size of an elephant, covered in the same eerie aura as the shaman. 

This seemed to be the same Crow that Alex had been searching around in the forest for so long. 

The old man glanced in the direction where Alex had left for a moment before urging the Demon beast below him to fly northwards where the Barbarian Army was located.

The crow immediately flew into the distance with a short flap of his wings before vanishing into a cloud of black smoke that he fired to his front from its beak.

Whereas Alex, who was running through the forest, came to an abrupt stop and looked behind him as if something had spooked him. 

"Shit, what in the name of God was that?" Alex yelled out in shock. He never felt such a disgusting, vomit-inducing but frightening aura anywhere before. Alex immediately searched for the origin of that aura as it had only appeared for a second before disappearing completely. But unfortunately, he found nothing. 

"What are you talking about?" The heavenly spirit asked Alex through the spiritual connection between them.

"You didn't feel that?" Alex questioned back but seeing that he got no answer, he quickly explained how he felt just a few seconds ago. 

"... Do you still feel it? That eerie gaze?" The heavenly spirit asked after staying silent for a few seconds.

"No, it was only for a moment," Alex asked again.

"... Without seeing or feeling what you have felt, I can't say for sure. There are many vile creatures in the universe that give off such an offputting aura as you had described and non of them are good things. Stay alert, Alex; some creatures are very good at hiding from a spiritual sense. I think whatever that thing was, it should only be passing by and should not be targeting you, but even then, you should  try to get far away as much as you can from this place." The heavenly spirit replied and warned Alex in a grave tone.

Alex thought for a few seconds and thought it was better to do as the Heavenly spirit had said.

Alex continued his journey towards the mountain but remained alert of his surroundings.

...

A half-an-hour later, when Alex reached the mountain base, he scanned the surroundings to search for suitable targets. 

"There are 3 Peak stage Rank 2 Demon Beast in the vicinity of this mountain. Two on the right and one on the left. Let's get the one the le- Uh! What's that?" Alex immediately found the location of three strong Demon Beast. But he didn't get disappointed because, at the extreme reach of his spiritual Sense coverage, Alex sensed a powerful aura that even seemed higher than Nora's Master.

"That's definitely a Rank 3 Demon Beast that too at the peak stage." Alex was elated due to his founding. He immediately rushed to climb the mountain because that strong Demon Beast was resting in a big cave on the same forest-covered mountain.

As Alex climbed the mountain, his elation soon began to fade. It was becasue he found that his previous analysis of that Rank 3 Demon Beast seemed to have not been correct. 

As he got closer to the location, Alex found that he could better gauge the strength of the Demon Beast through its aura. 

It was not a Peak Stage Rank 3 Demon Beast as he had thought but an Early order/stage Rank 4 Demon beast. 

Alex hid behind the foliage of a tree near the cave entrance and tried to look inside without alerting its inhabitant.

Alex was now sure that his guess was correct. Though he could see the Demon Beast inside the cave, Alex was sure that this Demon Beast had made a breakthrough just a few weeks, if not days ago.

An early-stage Rank 4 Demon Beast is naturally not simple, even if it had made a breakthrough in the past few days.

This was the same if not stronger than the Wind Elemental Master Realm Expert he saw back then.

Alex wasn't sure if he could tame a Rank 4 Demon Beast just by seducing him with his bloodline to form a contract with him like he had done before. 

As Alex knew, Rank 4 Demon Beast has the same intelligence as that of an adult human being. Therefore, there wasn't a question of wanting to seduce such an intelligent creature with the help of his bloodline. Eating him may seem a better choice than forming a bond with a complete stranger.

Subduing the Demon Beast through force will never succeed because he wasn't that strong yet. It would be a death wish if he tried to talk to it on the benefits of becoming his underling.

Alex was now in a dilemma, whether to go back for those 3 Peak order Rank 2 Demon Beast or try his hand at contracting a Rank 4 Demon Beast. 

The dawn was about to come, after all.