Chapter 99 Hunting

Hunting

Jumping from branch to branch of the countless sky-piercingly tall trees in the Soaring Sword Sect's hunting grounds, Xue Bai was feeling in his element.

Whether it was from the years that he spent in his forest-like training grounds or the slight influence that came from his bloodline, whenever Xue Bai was in a forest, he felt free. The feeling was so refreshing that he even almost had the instinct to reveal his true form.

However, in fear that a Soaring Sword Sect powerhouse would notice his pure demonic beast bloodline and mistake him for a demon, Xue Bai kept it hidden.

After all, the Soaring Sword Sect was an entirely righteously-sided organization and would never allow a demon into their fold, no matter how talented they were.

And while Xue Bai might not be righteously aligned, as long as he was a Soaring Sword Sect member, he had to at least act like one.

After exploring the forest for almost 10 minutes, Xue Bai finally found his first prey, but since the beast was merely a jaguar-type demonic beast in the Muscle Nourishing Realm, Xue Bai didn't even bother to draw his sword out.

Simply notching an arrow and blasting it toward the jaguar's throat, Xue Bai quickly killed the demonic beast. And after jumping to the ground, Xue Bai placed his token on the jaguar's forehead, after which a ten appeared on his token, indicating that the jaguar was a Late Stage Muscle Nourishing Realm demonic beast.

Following the quick jaguar kill, Xue Bai would spend the next few hours cutting down various beasts, but sadly none of them were strong enough to give Xue Bai a thrill. The strongest of the demonic beasts he had encountered was only in the Early stages of the Bone Strengthening Realm.

But since Xue Bai was almost as strong as someone in the Late stages, the demonic beast died with a swift arrow to the throat.

Along the way, Xue Bai had also seen other participants, but because Xue Bai usually was springing from tree to tree like a monkey, no one saw him. And even if they did see him, no one dared to talk to him, potentially gaining his ire.

The impression that Xue Bai gave the participants was of a high and aloof cold genius. And since that temperament wasn't rare, most people knew how to interact with those people. So the participants knew not to interact with Xue Bai, who was so focused on the trial, and left him alone.

Sure there were people who had malicious intentions toward him, but without any information about Xue Bai nor a plan, they suppressed their hostile nature.

Xue Bai, whether unaware or uncaring of their feelings, was more focused on the number of points he had, or rather how little he had.

Currently, Xue Bai only had 300 points. And while he didn't know how many points the other competitors had, he was sure that his measly 300 was in the lower half of the rankings. Which meant that at the rate he was going, entering the top 1000 would be nothing more than a pipedream.

And while on the off chance that Xue Bai did fail this trial, the Soaring Sword Sect would surely still allow him in by bending a rule or two, but that would lower his value.

Xue Bai wanted to get in by his own strength and not only keep his same value but possibly even elevate it by a notch.

Though he had Senior Huli's spatial ring of resources, and his surplus of memories, who would deny even more resources being allocated to them?

And if he ended up having too many to consume himself, Xue Bai could even start to nurture a force under him!

There was no reason why more resources could hurt Xue Bai, so he wanted as much as he could get.

However, as he was looking at his pitiful amount of points, Xue Bai noticed that the sun was already starting to set. Xue Bai and the other participants had arrived at the Soaring Sword Sect's hunting grounds early in the morning, but he had spent almost 4 hours dealing with the Wang Clan members. And after another 7 hours of subpar hunting, the sun was already halfway down the horizon.

However, instead of pitching a tent for the night, Xue Bai decided to continue hunting. The almost pitch-black darkness had no effect on Xue Bai. And it certainly had no effect on the other participants. And while Xue Bai didn't know the minimum amount of points needed to enter the top 1000, he knew that he was certainly far behind it.

He had already spent a lot of time and got extremely unlucky in regards to encountering strong, worthwhile demonic beasts to hunt.

So rather than waste a night, Xue Bai planned to hunt through it and try to make up for the time he wasted earlier.

And by virtue of his persistence, only a few minutes later, Xue Bai finally found a demonic beast that was worth his time. However, as much as it was prey, it was also an old friend.

"I thought you would hide. Who would've thought that I'd find you only a few hours later." Xue Bai smirked as he found the Azure Winged Wolf licking its wounds under a large dead overhanging tree.

Hearing the human language come from near it, the Azure Winged Wolf looked up instantly and scanned its surroundings with its large blue eyes before spotting Xue Bai in a tree a few dozen meters away.

And after spotting him, Azure Winged Wolf, like Xue Bai, also became excited, and for the same reason too.

After encountering this devil spawn, it had possibly the worst day it had ever had in its hundred years of living.

First, It had been casually walking through its territory when an arrow suddenly pierced its back. Looking at the culprit, the Azure Winged Wolf found it to be a small human child, even weaker than itself.

Obviously, enraged, the demonic beast swore to eat the assailant, but even after almost an hour of chasing, it still couldn't catch up with its much weaker attack. However, not only could it not catch up to the tiny human, but it also had to dodge the dozens of arrows it was attacked by.

But just as the Azure Winged wolf was about to give up, the human child stopped and began to fight. Ecstatic, it fought back, swearing to eat its attacker, but even at the cost of an eye and almost half of its left wing, the wolf still couldn't win. And to make matters worse, randomly, a Peak stage Organ Tempering Realm human appeared.

Thankfully the human and human child seemed to have a business to do together, so after making sure neither of the two were paying attention to it, the Azure Winged Wolf flew off to its territory to rest, which brought it to its current location.

Remembering how easily it had suppressed Xue Bai in the fight following the sneak attacks, the Azure Winged Wolf felt confident in its chances of victory. So after standing up, the demonic beast did an animal version of a joint stretch and then proceeded to launch itself at Xue Bai, wanting to be the sneak attack in the second fight.

However, this time, it was warier and knew that instead of parrying or swatting away projectiles, it planned to dodge them.

Xue Bai could also sense the wolf's cautiousness and smiled. He, of course, wouldn't tell the wolf that his cautiousness wasn't needed. It only benefited Xue Bai, after all!

Meeting the Azure Winged Wolf's charge, Xue Bai imbued Fire Breath in smoldering flame before meeting the wolf's charge head-on.

And while Xue Bai could very easily kill the Azure Winged Wolf with his Space Element, that would take away both the fun and the chance to practice against a weaker beast.

Throughout the years, while Xue Bai certainly had fought against opponents, it was all either against his parents or in their supervision. Meaning that he never really had the chance to fight a blood-rushing fight or even test out his new theories in battle. At home, he could work on his foundational fighting knowledge.

But now, in the hunting grounds, Xue Bai could finally let loose and fight with all his heart. And he could finally test out the various ideas he had that he couldn't test before. After all, this Azure Winged Wolf would die no matter what, so why hold back any cards?

So test Xue Bai did. Testing various applications of the Fire Element and even some movement techniques that he encountered a bottleneck in. All in all, Xue Bai used the Azure Winged Wolf as a sharpening stone.

The Azure Winged Wolf almost instantly managed to sense that the small human child was also toying with it, but due to its fear of the iron sword, it had to swallow its anger and fight cautiously.

However, after 10 minutes of decent experimentation, Xue Bai eventually got bored of fighting the weaker demonic beast and decided to end the fight.

The Azure Winged Wolf, at this point, was on its last legs, and any further fighting with it would be immoral. So to quickly end the fight, Xue Bai notched an arrow and, after imbuing it with his Space Element, sent it flying toward the forehead of the demonic beast.

And unable to dodge in time, the wolf took the arrow head-on and finally closed its eyes forever.

Content with his practice, Xue Bai got the 100 points the Azure WInged Wolf was worth before continuing his adventure through the hunting grounds. It was only around 2 am, and there were still more than 4 hours before the participants who had chosen to rest would wake up, and Xue Bai needed to catch up before they did.

And hopefully, even not just catch up but also create a comfortable lead.

"I should try and find an Organ Tempering Realm Beasts." Xue Bai muttered to himself as he jumped from tree branch to tree branch.

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I'm back! Read the author's note for more info on my personal situation.