Chapter 9: Hunting Mission (Part 2)

Moments later, the ground was covered with corpses—eighty or ninety mutated Fu beasts.
Eagle Demon said, “The mutated Fu beasts… have all run away!”
Guo Shier was extremely busy. After the mutated Fu beasts died, he had to collect their souls within minutes, otherwise the souls would dissipate. So he had no time to focus on anything else and dedicated himself entirely to gathering soul beads. He didn’t possess Qi Nan Shan’s ability to instantly form soul beads with a simple grab; he could only use spells, which was much slower.
Xuan Ai was also in a flurry. He had never seen so many corpses of mutated Fu beasts before and had to collect and refine their essence blood as quickly as possible before the blood in their bodies dried up.
It wasn’t until he could no longer form soul beads that Guo Shier realized the souls had already dissipated—after all, he wasn’t a great sage. Counting the soul beads he had refined, he had gathered about thirty of them, while the souls of over fifty more mutated Fu beasts had vanished.
Guo Shier sighed and began refining essence blood beads. As long as the blood of the mutated Fu beasts hadn’t dried, he could extract some essence blood beads. After working for over an hour, he managed to refine less than two hundred such beads, of mediocre quality—after all, they were mostly level four or five mutated Fu beasts, with level four ones being the majority.
Xuan Ai said with a wry smile, “This isn’t easy work at all.”
Not a single mutated Fu beast was visible in sight—they had all been scared away by the giant nesting dragon. If it had only been dark-winged scorpions and blade shadow beetles, perhaps these mutated Fu beasts could have fought back, but facing a mutated giant nesting dragon on the verge of reaching level nine, these lower-tier mutated Fu beasts had no choice but to flee.
After carefully counting the corpses on the ground, Xuan Ai said, “Nearly a hundred… This far exceeds my mission quota…”
Eagle Demon asked, “What do you mean?”
Guo Shier smiled and said, “That means… he’s completed his mission beyond expectations.”
Eagle Demon nodded and said, “Let me help with skinning and butchering.” Even after extracting their souls and essence blood, the skins, flesh, and bones of these mutated Fu beasts were still valuable. Eagle Demon also had inheritance knowledge related to harvesting, allowing him to do this work skillfully.
Holding his talisman bag, Eagle Demon used his life talisman blade to start skinning and butchering the beasts.
Guo Shier mused, “Are mutated Fu beasts at level six or seven also this densely packed? If so, hunting will be very difficult.”
Xuan Ai replied, “Mutated Fu beasts at level five or six are relatively more concentrated, but those at level six or seven are different—they have their own territories… though very small… Well, not as densely packed as before.”

Guo Shier said, “That’s about right. Otherwise, we’d be sending ourselves to death…”
Xuan Ai replied, “Not exactly. Look, when we left the city, most professionals worked in small teams or even joined forces across several teams. It’s rare to see someone like us—just three of us daring to charge in and hunt mutated rune beasts.”
Guo Shier laughed and said, “We can only hunt lower-level mutated rune beasts. We don’t dare touch the higher ones. At most, we can hunt level-seven mutated rune beasts, and even then, we need the help of the Giant Perch Dragon. Otherwise, we’re not confident we can succeed.”
Among the piles of mutated rune beast corpses, more than half were in tatters, torn to pieces by the Giant Perch Dragon. Some of the meat from these beasts was unsuitable for consumption because it had been poisoned by the Dark-Winged Scorpion, containing large amounts of toxins, and could only serve as food for the Dark-Winged Scorpion and the Blade Shadow Mantis.
Only over thirty mutated rune beast corpses were worth skinning and butchering, a few of which were quite large and required the help of an Eagle Demon to process. The smaller corpses were handled by Guo Shier and Xuan Ai. Hunting the mutated rune beasts didn’t take much time, but processing their skins and meat took the three of them most of the afternoon.
By the time everything was done, it had already grown dark. Guo Shier said, “Let’s find a place to rest. The smell of blood here is too strong!”
Xuan Ai wasn’t familiar with this area either. He had only entered and left Qing City before, never daring to venture into the Secret Wilderness. He took out a rune map and examined it briefly before saying, “There’s an abandoned small village not far away. It’s getting dark soon. Let’s hurry there. I think there are still mutated rune beasts lurking in the village. We need to drive them away before we can settle there.”
Guo Shier was too lazy to put down the Giant Perch Dragon. He flew onto its back and said, “Let’s ride the Giant Perch Dragon there.”
Xuan Ai also flew up and laughed, “It’s convenient to have a powerful spirit beast.”
The Dark-Winged Scorpion and the Blade Shadow Mantis also flew onto the Giant Perch Dragon’s back. Guo Shier steered the Giant Perch Dragon in the direction indicated by Xuan Ai.
The Giant Perch Dragon moved with great force, taking steps of over a hundred meters each. Its huge feet pounding the ground could be heard for miles around, causing the lower-level mutated rune beasts in the vicinity to flee at the sound, not daring to confront it.
A short while later, Guo Shier saw the small village in the distance. The houses were mostly destroyed, leaving only ruins. As the Giant Perch Dragon approached, the mutated rune beasts lurking in the village fled quickly.

Xuan Ai envied once again, “It’s great to have a Spirit Beast. We don’t even need to take action to find a peaceful place. For professionals who come out to hunt, it’s not easy to find a safe campsite.”
Guo Shier smiled and said, “Why don’t you raise a Beast Talisman?”
Xuan Ai smiled bitterly. “Who doesn’t want to? But raising a Beast Talisman… requires a huge amount of soul energy. I’m not as extreme as you. Alas, it’s not that I don’t want to; I just can’t afford it.”
Guo Shier said, “Strange. I’ve seen very few professionals using Beast Talismans. Is that because of this?”
Xuan Ai replied, “It’s not strange. In our traditions, there are few skills for raising Spirit Beasts. Only in the ancient traditions is it common to use them. Moreover… using Spirit Beasts and Spirit Insects also has its downsides. Once they’re countered…”
Guo Shier laughed. “I get it. Once countered, I’m in danger… right?”
Xuan Ai nodded. “Yes. That’s the biggest problem with controlling beasts and insects. But you seem different. You also have the skill to control talismans… Hehe, don’t worry about these. A powerful Spirit Beast is extremely helpful to professionals.”
Eagle Demon found a half-ruined house, cleaned it a bit, laid down thick animal skins, and lit a fire. He invited Guo Shier and Xuan Ai to sit down.
Guo Shier left the Giant Perch Dragon outside to hunt on its own, while the Dark-Winged Scorpion and Blade Shadow Mantis patrolled the outskirts of the village. If they encountered mutated talisman beasts, they would hunt them themselves.
There was no conversation that night.
The next morning, Guo Shier got up, washed his mouth and face, had breakfast, and the three of them discussed their next steps.
Xuan Ai said, “Let’s go back to the city. First, we’ll hand in our current task, then get a new one.”
Guo Shier shook his head. “We’ve only been out for two days and you want to go back? Are you joking?”
Xuan Ai couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s because your Giant Perch Dragon is so powerful. It completed the task after just one hunt.”
Guo Shier said, “Let’s go to the area where advanced mutated talisman beasts are active. Even if we catch just one level-7 mutated talisman beast, it’s better than killing a bunch of low-level ones here.”
Xuan Ai said, “Level 7… That means going deep into the wasteland, which is very dangerous. What if we encounter a level-9 or level-10 mutated talisman beast? We might be able to fight a level-8 one, but level-9 and level-10… we simply can’t beat them.”
Guo Shier said, “Not necessarily. If we encounter a level-9 or level-10 mutated talisman beast, even if we can’t defeat it, escaping should be possible.”

Eagle Demon said dismissively, “Where would so many Level 9 and Level 10 mutated rune beasts come from? You’re being way too cautious.”
Xuan Ai replied helplessly, “Uncle, you don’t know the situation here. It’s very special. If it weren’t for all those mutated rune beasts… Just think, a sect as large as Haimen can’t even clear out a secret realm… To this day, we still don’t know where all those mutated rune beasts came from. Not to mention Level 9 or Level 10 ones—I heard from the elders that Level 11 and Level 12 mutated rune beasts have appeared in large numbers. It’s terrifying.”
Guo Shier said, “We wander on the edges of the areas where higher-level mutated rune beasts are active, and we can always find isolated Level 7 or Level 8 ones. Hunting Level 5 or Level 6 ones isn’t very challenging, and the rewards aren’t significant either.”
Xuan Ai seemed lacking confidence. He was just a master of runes. Hunting Level 5 or Level 6 mutated rune beasts was a bit forced, but he could manage it. Hunting Level 7 or Level 8 ones was overreaching—Haimen didn’t encourage its disciples to hunt beyond their level. He said with a wry smile, “I guess… it won’t be very useful.”
Guo Shier smiled and said, “You don’t need to take action. Just do some supporting work.”
Xuan Ai thought for a moment before nodding. “Alright. I need points.” He was about to advance in rank and needed the points for inheritance. If he could get another chance at inheritance, he couldn’t resist such temptation.
Guo Shier asked, “How many points can you get by hunting a Level 7 mutated rune beast?”
Xuan Ai replied, “The calculation method is complicated. I’m not sure either. Anyway, killing a Level 7 mutated rune beast should earn me a lot of points.”
Guo Shier summoned the Giant Perch Dragon and led Xuan Ai, Eagle Demon, the Dark-Winged Scorpion, and the Blade Shadow Mantis toward the area where higher-level mutated rune beasts were active.
Along the way, the Giant Perch Dragon charged ahead, scattering large groups of lower-level mutated rune beasts. Xuan Ai kept checking the rune diagrams. After a while, he said, “We can’t go any further. If we follow this path, we’ll enter the mountainous area, where there are many higher-level mutated rune beasts. Let’s be careful.”
Guo Shier noticed that there were far fewer lower-level mutated rune beasts around. Occasionally, some Level 6 ones could be seen wandering, but they would flee immediately upon spotting the Giant Perch Dragon.
In the distance, the mountains rose and fell, with many small hills on the ground. The dense forests blocked part of the view.
Xuan Ai said, “Shier, your Giant Perch Dragon…”
Guo Shier understood what he meant. He cast a spell, and the Giant Perch Dragon quickly shrank back to its mini version.

Xuan Ai said, “Now we can look for Level 7 mutated rune beasts. Let’s see how lucky we are!” There was a hint of tension in his voice.