Two months later.
A bow on his back, Ye Xi was riding through the jungle on the back of Allo, now four meters tall.
Scaly's body was now as thick as a large stone basin, and its black boa body slithered alongside them.
Saurus, who was about the same size as Allo, held the rear, running two steps before looking around.
As Ye Xi now had Allo, Saurus, and Scaly, he was more willing to go farther afield. Over the last few days, he had gone around in search of plants and vegetables to cultivate.
Of course, he couldn't get too far from Mud Mountain. After all, this world had far too many dangers.
Mounted atop Allo, Ye Xi found that these Terror Beasts were actually quite suitable mounts. This was because the place where their necks joined their bodies had a curve where a human could sit rather firmly without fear of falling.
The three beasts and one human were soon ten-some li from the tribe's territory, to a place Ye Xi had never been before.
This was a grove of strange fruit trees.
Ye Xi's eyes brightened, and he ordered Allo to stop and began to inspect the fruit trees.
These fruit trees grew very tall, and their leaves were like those of a mimosa. Pink flowers bloomed from them, and beneath them were purple fruits.
Ye Xi glanced at the mottled trunks of the fruit trees and knew that the insect flood had been through this grove. Otherwise, the fruits would not have been so sparse.
Ye Xi glanced up at the crowns of the tree, then he climbed up on Allo's head. He jumped up and snatched a fruit from the tree, then he jumped back onto Allo's back.
The fruit in his palm was about the size of a baby's fist, and it exuded an alluring fragrance. From the glossy skin, it seemed to be packed with juice.
Ye Xi did not dare to recklessly eat it. Instead, he planned to find a small animal to test it on.
Ye Xi rode Allo forward.
This grove wasn't large, and Ye Xi failed to find any suitable creatures to experiment on, so Allo carried Ye Xi all the way to the end of the grove.
Suddenly, he spotted a strange stone mound.
Ye Xi curiously examined this mound.
In this place brimming with plant life, how could there be a bald mound of stone without even one inch of grass growing on it?
But this world had far too many oddities, and Ye Xi was no relentlessly inquisitive scholar.
Yet stone was a very important material, and good stone could be made into tools or sharp weapons.
Ye Xi jumped down from Allo, intending to dig out a little stone from this pile and inspect its quality.
This mound of stone was about seven or eight meters tall. Its surface was very smooth, very different from the craggy surfaces of stone walls.
Ye Xi took his weapon from his waist.
This was no longer the triangular bayonet made from the bone of a Brontosaurus, but a dagger made from the beak of that pureblood fiendbeast.
Ye Xi had only been planning to obtain the Fiendbeast Core from that bird of prey, leaving the rest for Calm Bulrush, but after Calm Bulrush made its beak into a weapon, he still had some leftover materials that he made into a dagger for Ye Xi.
A dagger made from the beak of a pureblood fiendbeast was naturally incredibly sharp. Even when Ye Xi made a sheath out of the toughest wood he could find, the sheath was still frequently damaged by the sharp dagger edge.
Ye Xi stroked the walls of the mound. It was gray and chilly to touch, but he couldn't determine anything about its quality.
He slashed at the mound with his dagger.
Clink! A piercing sound came from the stone.
The dagger had only managed to leave a faint white mark on the surface.
"Eh?"
Ye Xi raised an eyebrow in surprise. He wasn't even able to cut off a single shard?
His eyes immediately began to blaze.
Ever since he had gotten the dagger, he had been able to slice through anything like he was cutting fruit. If this pile of stone was that tough, it would serve as excellent material for weapons!
Ye Xi gripped the dagger with both hands and slashed at the stone.
Crssh.
Sparks flared.
A piece of stone as thin as paper was shaved off.
Ye Xi picked up the thin piece, truly shocked this time. What sort of stone was so tough?!
Ye Xi put away his dagger and began walking around the mound.
If this pile of stone was really that tough, he wouldn't be able to hack away at it! And it wasn't like he could carry the entire thing back.
He slowly walked around the base of the mound, carefully examining the walls and the grooves. If the grooves were in the right place, he could more easily cut at the stone.
This mound of stone was truly strange. Its walls were far too smooth, without any corners. It was like someone had smoothed them down.
Wait! What's this?!
Ye Xi's eyes flew open.
Two or three meters above him, there was a small crack in the stone. A dark brown substance clung to the rock here.
Ye Xi climbed on Allo and approached that crack. He then scratched off some of that dark brown substance with his finger and brought it up to his nose.
It smelled like blood.
This blood… had flowed out from the stone wall? Ye Xi's eyes were round with shock.
The crack was about five centimeters wide. Ye Xi thrust his dagger into it.
Plush.
The dagger smoothly slid into the wall like it was penetrating into flesh.
An abnormally viscous brown blood began to slowly seep past the dagger.
Ye Xi stared in shock at the flowing blood. He took out his dagger, thrust his finger into the crack, and felt around.
This… felt like flesh and blood!
Ye Xi rode Allo a little distance away and once more inspected the stone mound.
Could it be…
An idea, an extremely absurd idea, appeared in his mind, making his blood run cold and his heart thump faster.
Could this stone mound be some unknown creature?
Ye Xi felt like he wanted to run away right now.
He had no desire to keep messing around with such a bizarre creature. Who knew how powerful it was?
But once Ye Xi calmed back down, he knew that he was overthinking things.
This blood was sticky and rather viscous, and it was tinged black. Even if the creature had been extremely powerful, it was probably dead.
With this thought in mind, Ye Xi stared at the stone mound, feeling more and more that this was the truth.
Letting out a long breath, Ye Xi rode over on Allo and took out his dagger.
He would know whether it was dead or not once he stabbed it a few more times!
The stone walls were too tough to penetrate, so Ye Xi stabbed the dagger again into the crack.
There was no reaction from the mound, and it was so silent that it truly seemed to be nothing but stone.
Ye Xi found this bizarre creature extremely unusual, so he wanted to carve off a little meat for the shaman to look at.
But as he moved the dagger to the sides, he encountered formidable resistance. The dagger could not cut through.
It seems that the flesh in there is extremely tough. It's only around the crack that the resistance is weaker, Ye Xi remarked to himself.
Ye Xi could only cut farther into the crack.
As the dagger cut deeper and deeper, more and more of that sticky and congealing blood flowed out. The toughness of the flesh meant that Ye Xi couldn't carve much meat from the crack, only two slivers of meat about the thickness of his fingers.
Just when the dagger was about an arm's length deep and Ye Xi was about to stop, he sensed his dagger striking something extraordinarily tough.
Ye Xi raised an eyebrow, and attempted to pry this object out with his dagger.
The dagger was made from a beak, so it was naturally curved like a hook. With the dagger, Ye Xi was able to slowly pry out this object.