Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 83: The First Appearance
"I actually killed a second-tier demonic beast!"

Walking on the street, Chen Li felt like he was in a dream.

It was quite fortunate that the terrain was advantageous, preventing the snake demon from exerting its power at all. If the environment had been different, the outcome would probably have been very different.

"Kacha!"

He twisted his waist and moved his body, and his slightly misaligned bones and joints instantly returned to their original positions. He coughed a few times, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and the feeling of chest tightness and shortness of breath immediately improved.

"Damn, this snake demon is incredibly powerful!"

Several blows nearly broke him apart, causing some dislocation and bleeding in his internal organs, resulting in a dull ache and internal injuries.

Fortunately, he was physically strong. If it were a rogue cultivator who hadn't cultivated his body, even with a defensive golden talisman, he would have been killed by the snake demon long ago.

The undigested Qi-replenishing pills are continuously transforming into spiritual energy.

Chen Li felt that his spiritual power was barely enough to use a hemostatic treatment spell once, so he began to cast the spell.

Soon, an invisible magical power descended, like a long-awaited rain nourishing the body, and the injuries inside began to heal rapidly... By the time they were almost home, the injuries had almost completely healed.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, did you just return from outside? How was the situation there?"

Just as Chen Li was about to leap over the courtyard wall, the door to the next room opened, and Zhang Yan sneaked out through the crack in the door, her face looking like that of a helpless girl who had just been ravaged by several burly men, covered in sweat and carrying a hint of fear and unease.

"Well, it's alright, but several families have been affected. It's really terrible!" Chen Li said dismissively.

"The monster is gone, right?!" Zhang Yan breathed a sigh of relief, still shaken, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "That commotion was really astonishing. Even while I was in the cave, I felt like the earth was turning over. This time, it probably wasn't an ordinary monster... Sigh, it's so hard to survive in this world."

How could this not cause a big commotion?
It's right next to us.

The monster went berserk, distorting and deforming the entire tunnel.

"Yes, yes, thankfully it was just a false alarm," Chen Li could only sigh in agreement.

At this moment, he was physically exhausted.

I'm so tired!

He clearly did something earth-shattering: he killed a second-tier demon beast.

But they could only travel in secret, dressed in fine clothes.

Forget it, let's just keep quiet and make a fortune.

He just wanted a quiet life.

As for showing off, let the "meat seller" persona handle that.

After finally dealing with Zhang Yan, Chen Li returned to the basement, intending to go to sleep early and deal with it tomorrow. However, listening to the constant noises coming from the tunnel, he felt uneasy.

just in case……

He then dragged his weary body to the tunnel and, with his remaining strength, chopped off the head of the still writhing snake demon.

Looking at the snake demon whose head and body had separated.

"Now I can finally sleep peacefully."

However, he clearly oversimplified the issue.

As soon as he got into bed, Zhou Hong, who was still awake, clung to him tenderly and affectionately.

"Hiss!" Chen Li, who had intended to refuse, couldn't help but swallow the words.

Zhou Hong initially agreed to follow Chen Li because she valued his honest, law-abiding nature and his competence.

Although it is common to hear of people having a penchant for visiting brothels, it is normal for a middle-aged widower, who has no home or family, to go to brothels, and his behavior even changed later.

The other party was interested, and she felt it was alright.

He then decided to entrust the rest of his life to her.

Unexpectedly, the other party soared to great heights, with his strength and cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds. In particular, he suddenly became several years younger, which made her feel somewhat inferior. She worried that the other party would look down on her broken body, and she became more and more willing to take the initiative to please her man.

"How do I compare to those temptresses in the brothels?" Zhou Hong asked shyly, raising her head.

Chen Li: ...

He was curious about this too.

I really don't know what kind of evil secret arts those witches know?
It's really...terrifying to think about.

"Why bring this up again? I'd completely forgotten about it...!"

……

The next morning, when Chen Li woke up, Zhou Hong was no longer there.

As soon as he got up, he felt a sharp pain in his back and waist, and he almost couldn't get out of bed.

Chen Li thought to himself, "The hemostasis treatment can heal injuries, but it can't cure physical fatigue."

Without eating breakfast, he left his bedroom and headed towards the tunnel.

Sure enough, Zhou Hong was there dealing with the snake demon's corpse.

That woman.

How courageous.

At this moment, the snake demon's body was still twisting and twitching from time to time, showing amazing vitality. Even though it was dead, its residual power remained. As soon as you got close, its aura was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Zhou Hong was painstakingly peeling off the scales, and seeing the scales scattered all over the snake's body, it was clear that she had been busy for a while.

Chen Li stepped forward, picked up the two scales, and examined them carefully.

Under the dim light of the oil lamp, the scales shimmered and shimmered, like beautiful and exquisite sapphires, so much so that even he couldn't take his eyes off them.

Although only two or three millimeters thick, they are extremely heavy, each weighing about a pound. When they strike each other, they make a crisp, metallic sound. I tried to bend them, but found that I couldn't bend them even slightly with my own strength.

"What an incredible creature!"

The tapping sound of the scales startled Zhou Hong, who couldn't help but complain coquettishly, "Why do you always walk so silently? You scared me!"

After training his muscles, Chen Li gained full control over them, which naturally enabled him to exert force throughout his body. His feet had a strong grip, and he walked with a fluid, effortless gait, almost as if he were shrinking the distance between his feet. Without any deliberate effort, he appeared light and his footing was silent.

Chen Li chuckled awkwardly, tossed away the scales, making a clinking sound: "Why didn't you sleep a little longer?"

"The thought of not having dealt with a second-tier demon corpse keeps me awake at night." Zhou Hong's face was flushed with the joy of her accomplishment.
"These scales are all second-tier materials, which are very valuable. I've also heard that second-tier demonic beasts have demon cores, which are the main ingredient in many high-level pills, but I haven't looked for them yet!"

'Demon core!?' Chen Li almost forgot.

He remembered that this was mentioned in the travelogue of the wandering monk.

Unlike humans who need to reach the Golden Core stage to form a core, demon beasts can condense a demon core in their dantian using their bloodline and demonic power as soon as they reach the second stage. After that, they continuously purify and refine it, and their strength increases day by day.

"Let me look!" Chen Li said.

By the way, where is the snake's dantian?

He walked up to the mountain of internal organs that had been pulled out by the traction technique, covered his nose, and used his sword to rummage through them.

A heart that is still beating.
Move it to the side.

胆。

I've heard that snake gallbladders can improve eyesight.

Set it aside.

A bulging stomach that is five or six meters long.

Chen Li hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist pulling out his sword and cutting open the swollen stomach.

The stomach was quite tough, and without channeling spiritual energy, it couldn't be cut open for a while.

After a while.

There was a loud "whoosh".

A large number of corpses corroded by stomach acid poured out like a tidal wave of gastric juice, startling Chen Li so much that he retreated repeatedly, his face ashen.

At the same time, a mixture of fishy, ​​putrid, and sour odors, which had been fermenting overnight, rushed into Chen Li's nasal cavity like a biological weapon. Even though he was a seasoned veteran, he almost succumbed to it.

After a long while, he forced himself to suppress his nausea and went up to rummage through the pile of filth.

The corpses had decomposed to the point of being nothing but rotten flesh. There were as many as seven or eight corpses in total, and they were unrecognizable. Even the exposed bones had been corroded, leaving them riddled with holes.

Not to mention the corpses, Chen Li discovered that even the magical artifacts were mostly corroded, and as for the spirit stones, there wasn't a single one left, presumably they had long since been completely digested and absorbed.

Feeling the churning in her stomach, Chen Lizhen wanted to slap herself.

I hate myself for being so impulsive.

He quickly used a pulling spell to fill the enormous hole the snake demon had drilled the day before, along with the soil beneath it, into the filthy mess. Then he dug up more soil and sealed it completely. As for whether he'd be able to sleep at night with the corpse buried not far from the bedroom?
Think of the bodies buried in the yard last winter; now the weeds are growing lush and green!

He was used to it by now; at worst, he would just draw a few more talismans to keep the evil spirits at bay in his bedroom.

……

He couldn't bear to throw away the empty stomach.

After all, it comes from a second-tier demon beast, so it can fetch a lot of money.

In short, it's not him who's eating it.

Next, Chen Li searched for a long time before finally finding the demon core among a pile of intestines.

The demon core was a bright red, like blood.

It can be held in one hand and is about the size of a ping-pong ball.

It has a very hard texture, like a crystal, with a very smooth surface that gleams with a mesmerizing light in the dark, making it quite dazzling.

With just a slight sense, he could feel the powerful energy fluctuations within, which were faintly unsettling.

Zhou Hong stopped peeling off the scales and curiously stepped forward: "This is the demon core, it's so beautiful!"

The two rogue cultivators, both at the Qi Refining stage, had clearly never seen this thing before.

"Is this edible?" Chen Li asked.

"Definitely not." Zhou Hong quickly said, "You mustn't eat it. I've never heard of this being edible."

"What about soaking it in liquor?" Chen Li asked again.

Everything can be soaked.

"Anyway, don't eat it. What if something goes wrong?"

"All right!"

Chen Li asked the question, but he wouldn't dare eat it until he understood what was going on.

He put away the demon core and continued to deal with the snake demon with Zhou Hong.

The entire serpent demon was seventeen or eighteen meters long from head to tail, and every single piece of it was a spiritual material, extremely valuable. In particular, its fangs and the entire spine looked as white as jade, radiating a faint spiritual light, and even showed signs of crystallization.

For lunch, we naturally ate the meat of this second-tier demon beast.

He used to be able to easily eat 1.5 pounds of meat at each meal.

But this time I only ate a pound, and I already felt a bit full.

The meat of this monster is firm and tough, like a rubber band when you bite into it. If you don't have strong teeth, you probably won't be able to grind it at all. However, the taste is extremely delicious, especially the soup made from stewing, which is so delicious that it's an explosion of flavor on your taste buds.

Zhou Hong only ate a piece of meat and drank a bowl of meat soup, and then stopped eating.

He bought most of them.

Not long after eating, my stomach began to feel warm, and then a feeling of heat spread throughout my body, turning my whole body red.

Its effects are just as good as Qi and Blood Pills.

It's even slightly better.

After finishing their meal, the two continued working, and they were still busy until late at night.

Fortunately, this second-tier demon beast has extremely strong vitality and is not as prone to decay as a first-tier demon beast. Even after it died, its muscles were still twitching and twitching instinctively when it was cut, and no odor was produced.

……

night.

afterwards.

"How much do you think would be a suitable price for this meat?" Chen Li asked.

“In the past, the market did sell second-tier demon beast meat, which was usually priced at one low-grade spirit stone per pound. But now everyone is short of money, so I doubt many people can afford it,” Zhou Hong said softly, nestled in Chen Li’s arms.

“Naturally, it should be cheaper. There’s so much snake demon meat; it would be troublesome if we couldn’t sell it all,” Chen Li said.

“I think… we shouldn’t sell it!” Zhou Hong hesitated for a moment, then said with some worry, “The risk is too great. A second-tier demon beast will probably attract everyone’s attention.”

"Let me think about it, let me think about it!" Chen Li murmured to himself, also feeling hesitant.

The profits are enormous.

This is a huge matter.

This would probably cause a sensation in the market.

The "meat seller" persona alone probably won't be enough to keep people in check; there will always be those who are eager to take advantage.

But it's hard to just leave money sitting there unearned.

More than ten tons, at least ten tons of monster meat after removing bones and scales.

If I only eat it myself, who knows how long I'll be able to keep eating it?

Moreover, it's impractical to make all of it into cured meat.

The key is salt.

After the caravans stopped coming, the salt supply to Green River Village was cut off.

The salt used in the household was purchased at a high price from some down-on-their-luck monks in the market.

The price was high, but Chen Li didn't care.

The key question is, where can we buy such a large quantity?
"I'm not afraid of the others, but I'm afraid of the Yu family's Foundation Establishment cultivators," Chen Li analyzed, a hint of arrogance in his words.

"However, this man is already old and, judging from his behavior since he came here, he doesn't seem like someone who likes to take risks. On the contrary, he has always been extremely low-key and has never made a move so far."

He should still be wary of second-tier demonic beasts.

Otherwise, whether for fame, profit, or prestige, why would I have the right to kill this monster?

Those who fear second-tier demonic beasts will fear those who kill them, and will be cautious and think twice before acting...

Moreover, the other party probably wouldn't even consider this small benefit.

……

The next day, while it was still barely dawn, Chen Li went out, disguised himself as a butcher, and knocked on Zhao Lin's door.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Zhao Lin asked, completely bewildered.

"It's important. I need you to buy a few Golden Light Talismans. No matter the price you pay, I'll give you three mid-grade spirit stones for each one. Buy as many as you can. Can you get them tonight?" Chen Li got straight to the point.

The Golden Light Talisman is the strongest defensive talisman for the Qi Refining stage, and it is said to be able to withstand a blow from the Foundation Establishment stage.

They rarely appear on the market.

Moreover, prices fluctuate wildly.

It's difficult to get an accurate price; it's all determined by market demand.

Given Chen Li's mindset, he could easily afford to sell a mid-grade magic artifact for a one-time use Golden Light Talisman.

After all, this is something that can save your life.

Even against a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator wielding a high-grade magic sword, it can withstand several blows without breaking.

As long as he has the Golden Light Talisman, he fears no enemy except for the Yu family's Foundation Establishment stage.

Zhao Lin immediately became excited: "Big brother, are we going to target the demon beasts again...? Someone will definitely be willing to pay this price. Leave the Golden Light Talisman to me, I guarantee I'll receive it tonight."

Ordinary demonic beasts have no need for the Golden Light Talisman.

Chen Li thought to himself.

He seemed so confident.

Chen Li couldn't help but add, "We can only accept five at most!"

After thinking for a moment, he took out a spirit stone pouch from his sleeve and reluctantly gave Zhao Lin fifteen mid-grade spirit stones: "Seeing that you don't have much money, I'll refund any excess and make up the difference. Be careful in everything, I'll come back to find you tonight!"

Looking at the huge sum of money in his hand.

For a moment, Zhao Lin even had the urge to abscond with the money and live in anonymity.

But this is just wishful thinking:
"Brother, don't worry! We brothers will risk our lives to get you a few Golden Light Talismans today."

(End of this chapter)