Devour

After leaving the Tianquan Temple, Cheng Bai found the best inn, booked the top floor, and slowly swung the knife on the wide balcony, incorporating his new understanding into it. He made repeated choices between change and simplification, and his knife skills became more perfect.

After practicing for a long time, Cheng Bai took out the Crescent Moon Blade and practiced with it. He felt quite comfortable with it. After taking a closer look, he couldn't help but admire it: "The shape is elegant, and the lines are smooth. Apart from the different styles and the lack of the demon beast crystal core, it is not inferior to the Crossing Blade in any other aspects."

But this was a treasure that he decided to exchange for the secret technique, so he stopped thinking about it, put it away and focused on using the Gap Knife.

In the evening, Cheng Bai took a sip of the fine wine from the wine god's gourd. Now his alcohol tolerance has improved and he can drink three sips a day without getting drunk.

He looked up at the night sky, asked for more paper and pen, and recorded the positions of celestial bodies in the sky. He compared them with the previous ones and wondered, "Record them a few more times and see."

After a good rest at night, I rode Xiaobai towards Shell Mountain at dawn.

This mountain is neither high nor big, with an altitude of only a few hundred meters, much smaller than the Strange Rock Mountain. To enter the secret realm, you need to go between the two walls of the mountain. The blue sky you see through the gap is like a line, and this kind of strange peak beauty is called a line of sky.

There are Hunter Guild posts guarding the entrance of the gap around the clock. To enter, you need to pay one or two taels of gold and verify your hunter level mark.

"They charge admission here? What an advanced concept."

Cheng Bai sighed, jumped off his mount, and told Xiaobai to move freely outside.

Xiaobai's intelligence was not yet fully developed, and he would not speak without the secret communication technique. This time he suggested, "Take me in, I want to look around, too."

Cheng Bai thought for a moment and said, "The petrified snakes inside will petrify living things. When they stare at you, you may just become a little stiff, but after a long time you will become paralyzed. If you are not alert and get rid of them in time, you will really be petrified slowly."

The secret abilities of the monsters were all known. Some advanced two-headed petrified snakes could petrify faster by staring. But petrified snakes could not look up too high at the sky. Occasionally, when they crawled to an open area, they became food for the poisonous sparrows in the sky.

Xiao Bai said: "The giant wolf clan is naturally resistant to paralysis and petrification secrets. If the poisonous sparrow is the natural enemy of the petrified snake, we are their nemesis."

This was something Cheng Bai didn't know before, so he took Xiao Bai into the secret realm of Shell Mountain.

The scenery inside is magnificent, with protruding strange rocks, tall and beautiful trees, and small streams of clear water flowing through the wood and rocks. It is clearly a mountain cave, but there are many strange-shaped holes like windows, which reflect the colorful light in the early morning, as if many bright lights were lit, gorgeous and colorful.

Cheng Bai couldn't help but praise: "It's so beautiful. Just looking at the scenery, it's a perfect secret place." He took Xiaobai for a stroll, but didn't find the petrified snake. It twisted and turned, climbing higher and higher in the secret trail.

Seeing Xiaobai sniffing around and seeming to have found something, Chengbai asked, "Is there anything special?"

Xiao Bai said: "The traces of their activities are very concentrated, as if they are acting in unison."

Cheng Bai was a little surprised. He followed Xiao Bai for a while and saw it suddenly stop. He asked in detail, "What's going on?"

Xiao Bai whispered, "They are all in front. It might be dangerous if we go over there."

Looking around, Cheng Bai chose a tall rock with a good view from above, and climbed up with Xiaobai. With his current strength, he could still pick up Xiaobai even if he was ten times heavier.

I hid and looked down, and the scene before me was shocking.

A large group of petrified snakes gathered in the front, crowded together and stacked up, with no sight of the ground between them. The small ones were several meters long, while the long ones were over ten meters long. They were all the size of giant pythons, and they all tried to raise their heads and stared straight ahead without moving.

Opposite them is a huge stone human head, the head alone is tens of meters high, and it looks like a female, with a smooth and delicate texture, as clean as jade, three-dimensional facial features and a delicate face.

After waiting for a long time, the petrified snakes still did not move, as if they had petrified themselves. Cheng Bai patiently looked left and right until the bright sunlight refracted in from outside and it was after morning, when the snakes began to move.

The petrified snake couldn't raise its head high enough to see Cheng Bai and Xiao Bai, so it didn't notice them and turned and left one after another.

Looking at the wriggling group of snakes below, Cheng Bai and Xiao Bai looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what the petrified snakes were doing. It was too weird.

After finally waiting until all the petrified snakes had left, Cheng Bai and Xiao Bai jumped down. They walked around the giant stone statue's head but didn't find anything special.

White sniffed around and approached some creeping plants that had apricot-like fruits on them, which made soft singing sounds.

"This is Lang Man. Now that we have found her, we should not miss her."

Cheng Bai identified the characteristics according to the governor's instructions and quickly picked all the plump fruits. He put one in his mouth. It had a small core and plenty of flesh. It was fragrant and sweet. It was delicious.

Going further up, you will reach the top of the mountain. As Cheng Bai left, he glanced at the stone statue with a human head and said casually, "If it is a real person, how big would it be?"

The man and the wolf passed through the cave and came to the top of the mountain. The mountains here were undulating in an arc shape, and the view was broad. Poisonous birds were circling in the sky.

They have a strong sense of territory and are at the top of the food chain in the surrounding area. They look a little different from the giant sparrows that fearlessly roam the wilderness. They are even larger in size, with black feathers all over their bodies and poisonous beaks. Some of them have three legs and build nests between cliffs.

There are bones scattered all over the top of the peak, which shows how ferocious it is. Very few hunters dare to provoke it.

However, one of the hunting team offended the enemy today, causing some poisonous sparrows to form a formation to surround and attack them, flying one after another in mid-air.

It was the team led by Wen Mingxuan. There were four people in the group, and all of them had pale faces.

"We have been able to pass through smoothly without encountering any petrified snakes. Why are there so many poisonous sparrows on the top of the mountain? Captain, please find a solution quickly." The beautiful teammate urged.

Wen Mingxuan forced himself to remain calm and shouted, "I have asked the old hunter many times. The petrified snake disappears every morning on this day, and the number of the mountain sparrows increases. This is a normal pattern. Fortune and wealth are sought in danger. Give me the Cloak of Breath-Hardening."

The treasure prepared in advance can make most monsters ignore the existence of the wearer, but it does not make the wearer truly invisible. It just makes the wearer lose hostility. If you suddenly attack the monster, you will still be counterattacked.

Wen Mingxuan put on his breath-concealing cloak and said, "I will take away the legendary mysterious ancient sword immediately, and then we can exit the secret realm. You guys hold on for a while."

The tall swordsman teammate hurriedly said, "Go quickly, we can hold out for a while together."

Under the protection of treasures and teammates, Wen Mingxuan ran towards an old iron sword that was inserted into a boulder in the center of the mountain. It was surrounded by human bones, and there were faint reflections of metallic luster inside.

He came to the old iron sword and looked at the reflected light a few more times curiously. It was just an old metal weapon among the bones, a hunter mark made of black iron, and some tattered equipment that was difficult to tell what it was.

"Level 19, Level 20, Level 21... So many hunters higher than me died."

Wen Mingxuan identified the mark and was frightened. He quickly bent down and grabbed the hilt of the ancient sword. He used both hands and tried his best but could not pull it up.

"Oh no, I can't pull out this mysterious ancient sword, what should I do?"

Just when Wen Mingxuan was at a loss, a shadow appeared in the sky.

He gave up the ancient sword and looked up. There was an extremely huge three-legged poisonous bird hovering above his head. Its wingspan was thirty meters long. The gusts it stirred up were terrifying, and the tips of its thick claws were as sharp as blades.

What makes it different from other poisonous sparrows is that, in addition to having three legs, its body also emits a faint black light. It lowered its head to look at where Wen Mingxuan was, with a playful look in its eyes.

Wen Mingxuan was able to stand firm under the strong wind from the powerful wings flapping above his head, and he thought to himself, "Such a big poisonous sparrow, could it be the Shadow Sparrow King?"

He guessed correctly.

The eyes of the King of the Sparrow were sharp, and the Breath-Resisting Cloak had little effect on it. It looked down at Wen Mingxuan and used the secret technique of Shadow Blade. The difference in strength between the two sides was several times, and the two dark blades flashed like a windmill, cutting off the hunter's head and waist, and his body was broken into three pieces and fell in the pile of bones, returning to dust like other losers.

Wen Mingxuan's defeat was seen by his teammates.

The double-blade hunter who was traveling with them shouted, "It's the Shadow Sparrow King. Its secret technique is powerful. Let's quickly retreat into the cave and leave the secret realm."

The three men fought and retreated, trying to get out of the cave passage they came in.

There are several such caves on the top of the mountain, connecting to the roads going down the mountain. As long as you can hide in one, the poisonous sparrow and the petrified snake in the cave are mortal enemies, making it inconvenient to chase them.

The King of the Sparrows had seen this kind of combination many times and knew their next move. He flapped his wings to catch up with the three and was about to use the Shadow Blade Technique on them, but before he could launch the attack, the world was spinning in front of his eyes and his head was cut off by a sudden flash of brilliant sword light and fell to the ground.

The mantis catches the cicada, and the oriole is behind.

Cheng Bai, who had caught up, just saw Wen Mingxuan being cut into three pieces and falling down. He was quite afraid of the Shadow Blade of the King of the Sparrow, so he approached in stealth, attacked in assassination mode, cut off his head with a quick knife, and then hid in stealth again to observe the situation.

The three hunters were busy taking care of themselves and did not see it. They cooperated with each other in defense and retreat, and successfully hid in the cave. The poisonous sparrows circled at the entrance of the cave for a while and gradually dispersed.

Cheng Bai circled around the Shadow Sparrow King twice, making sure it was struggling to death and had no ability to resist, then he put its headless body into his treasure bag. It contained meat, crystal cores, and feathers. It must be more delicious than the giant sparrow in the Fearless Wilderness.

He wanted to find some treasures in the pile of bones, but unfortunately they were all incomplete, and the cloak of concealment was also destroyed by the shadow blade. His eyes fell on the old iron sword with only the hilt exposed.

Just as I was about to go forward to check, I saw a meteor falling rapidly from the sky. The friction with the air produced blazing flames, a sonic boom sound, and it landed on the top of the mountain... No, that was not a meteor. It slowed down before landing, the sound gradually became smaller, and the speed was controlled freely, without causing a violent impact on the ground. What was it?