Chapter 374 - Survival of the Fittest (1)
Shen Yanxiao walked noiselessly into the depths of the forest as she followed the faint scent of blood. She wore the Moonlight Necklace and jumped on a tree branch immediately after that. She rapidly made her way forward on the tree branches.
As she traversed forth, the blood scent thickened. Shen Yanxiao noticed that some grass on the ground was stained with fresh blood. It seemed like whatever creature that did that had left only a few moments ago.
Shen Yanxiao could hear a muffled shout from inside the forest, and she immediately leaped toward it.
Mount Kuluo was exceptionally eerie and scary at night. The terrifying atmosphere intensified with the smell of blood in the air.
Shen Yanxiao could see many black shadows crouched in open space among the trees, and they had formed a circle. Their shoulders shook; it seemed like they were busy with something.
Shen Yanxiao was on a tree about ten meters away, and she narrowed her eyes to get a sharper view of those silhouettes. She could hear snapping sounds from those black figures, and the blood scent that surrounded them intensified.
The moonlight seeped through the leaves, and strands of it lit up those oddly-shaped silhouettes. At the same time, it also revealed a puddle of blood in their midst.
Shen Yanxiao realized that those figures were not humans. Their bent back was crooked in a strange shape, and they did not have a single shred of cloth to cover their bodies. There were also weird, uneven scales all over their black skin. Shen Yanxiao could only see their backs, but she knew that they were what she had been searching for—demonic beasts.
They had bones that protruded from their backs, something that was inherently different than a human.
The look on her face changed when she realized what was in the middle of the circle and surrounded by those demonic beasts.
Five to six humans with their chests ripped open were scattered on the ground, and their fresh blood dyed the soil beneath their bodies. Their internal organs were exposed; those demons had pulled them out with their sharp claws to chew on them.
Shen Yanxiao deduced that they were the mercenaries who had left the camp without permission. She bet that they had not expected to encounter demons instead of magical beasts.
The crushing and snapping sounds that she had heard were noises that the demons had made as they gnawed on the humans’ bones and flesh.
One unlucky mercenary was still alive, and she could see how his twisted hand had trembled. He vomited a large quantity of blood as those demons tore his abdomen open with their sharp claws. Then they pulled his internal organs out.
That grisly scene had occurred soundlessly under the night sky.
That was the first time that Shen Yanxiao had seen the rumored demon beasts. Even though she had seen how the demons killed the humans, she had a rather odd expression on her face. It did not look like it was fear or disgust, but it was something that one could not explain.
If someone else had seen the same scene, they would have run away in fright. However, Shen Yanxiao remained unmoved. She stood quietly on the tree branch and continued to look at the disgusting and unendurable scene.
“Xiu, are those demons?” Shen Yanxiao whispered as she pointed to the creatures that had swallowed the mercenaries’ bodies so greedily. One could not say that their eating behavior was like a human. Instead, it was much more similar to a wild beast.