The demon beast mountain was a very dangerous place where all kind of beast roam. The weakest among them being at least at the fourth level of qi-condensing realm. It is a place where even a strong innate realm cultivator like his father got injured to bring back the stone containing the primordial spirit stone. The purpose for Yun Chen to come to this place, is to find demon cores and demon beast spirit roots in order to completely achieve the first step of his cultivation art or at least, he must find a beast spirit root and, with the money earned after selling some beast cores he will try finding a way to buy an hexa-elemental seed because he can't hunt a dragon-type demon beast yet, even with poison.
After entering the demon beast mountain, Yun Chen was searching for his first prey.
«I must quickly find beast spirit roots first and particularly a poisonous one. The stronger the beast, the better is the spirit root and it will help me release freely my poison qi. But every demon beast here is more powerful than me so I will have to make some traps. » said Yun Chen to himself while carefully scrutinizing the area around him.
«The poisonous beasts like to live in dark and damp places. So, it is best to search near a swamp or inside caves. Let's go for the caves because the swamp is too deep inside the mountain and the deeper you go the stronger are the demon beasts. » Yun Chen though to himself.
The demon beast mountain is made of a large forest on the outer region, the mountains and cliffs on the inner region and the swamps in the core part of the mountain. Yun Chen stealthily headed to the junction between the forest and the mountainous area. He was about to head deeper in the mountainous area when he heard the sound of flowing water not too far.
«…oh? Is there a river nearby? It is the best the best place where I can probably find the demon beasts I want to hunt. Let's go take a look! » Said Yun Chen.
He dashed forward following the sound. But what he found wasn't a river but a little stream coming out of an enormous cave. And at the entrance of that cave the were some demon beast bones scattered on the ground.
« That is a typical sign that a demon beast had made the area around this cave his territory and since it is a cave with a stream, it is highly possible that the beast is a venomous one. Those beasts usually hunt at night so the best time to hunt them is during the day. Let's go in and see what kind of demon beast it is.» declared Yun Chen after looking around the cave.
While walking in the cave, the number of bones was increasing the deeper he goes. After some time, he began to hear whistling sounds. He then cautiously approached and saw the body of a large red snake. The snake was sleeping as predicted. But something else was bothering Yun Chen.
«…damn! Judging by its length and width, this is an early stage innate realm demon beast also called the three ring poisonous snake. It is impossible to deal with this beast at my current level. But if I can obtain its poisonous spirit root, I will be able to freely use my poison qi…» said Yun Chen with a discouraged expression. But when he was about to turn back, Yun Chen froze after seeing an isolated corpse at a corner of the cave. It was the body of a sabertooth tiger. And seeing the injuries on its body it must have been beaten, poisoned and brough here by the snake as its food reserve.
«It seems this sabertooth tiger has been poisoned just enough for it to stay alive without moving and then become the snake night diner. » concluded Yun Chen.
Suddenly, Yun Chen's face shown a cunning smile.
«Even if it is a poisonous demon beast, that doesn't mean it is immune to all poisons especially the poisons I have prepared. I can use this Sabertooth tiger to my advantage. I just need to make it ingest at least five bottles of poison before the snake swallow its body tonight » thought Yun Chen while taking out seven bottle of his home made poison.
The poisons made by Yun Chen can kill even a core-formation realm demon beast withing ten minutes not to mention an innate realm one.
Yun Chen made the sabertooth tiger swallow the poison with the bottles together to avoid killing it immediately. He then rushed out and stayed in stand-by not far away from the cave entrance waiting for the night to come.
That night, the snake obviously didn't come out because it didn't need to hunt when there is already a prey beside him waiting to be swallowed. But Yun Chen didn't stop there waiting for the snake to die from poison. When night came, he scattered some special powder at the entrance of the cave called the Beast-baiting powder. Its function is to attract all the beasts in the area within a radius of 50 miles.
«How can I not take advantage of such a powerful beast to reap some benefits? When the snake come outside and find the beasts trespassing its territory it will surely kill the low-level ones on the spot. As for the high-level ones it will fight them fiercely until the poison take effect. » said Yun Chen proudly while scattering the powder a little more.
Just when he finished, he sensed some movement inside the cave and rushed to find a shelter a little further from the cave. After some time, there were no more sounds inside the cave.
«It seems the plan is following its course. It must be asleep trying to digest its meal. But it won't be that simple.…he he» said Yun Chen with a grin.
Normally, the snake will begin digesting the prey around one hour after swallowing it and it will take another two hours to completely digest it.
Since Yun Chen's poison was still in bottles inside the corpse, it is at the end of the digestion that the poison will take effect.
«Now, I only need to wait for the show. After its death, I only need to collect the demon cores and all the spirits roots I will find. It is more efficient that way. » said Yun Chen with anticipation of the coming event.
After half an hour of waiting, some beast cries began resounding and each time the sounds were getting closer and closer.
«They are in time » said Yun Chen while jumping on the tallest tree he found not too far away rom the cave.
From his position, Yun Chen can see a lot of beasts attracted to the cave. At that moment he saw the snake coming out of the cave. It emitted a warning cry to show that it was its territory, but no beast seemed to listen.
The reason why these beasts didn't stop was because, after smelling the powder, all their fears were inhibited. But that only work for the beast under the innate realm.
«There are at least a hundred qi-condensing realm demon beasts, dozens of spirit-gathering ones and eight foundation building » Yun Chen approximately numbered them.
Angered by this sudden invasion the snake began to retaliate. It killed each and every beast coming across it without hesitation. The beast corpses began to pile up.
«It must have been almost three hours since it started. The best moment is about to come. » though Yun Chen when he suddenly heard a loud cry in the sky. That cry, even without seeing the beast, can be said to be belonging to an innate realm one. This situation really shocked Yun Chen.
«Impossible! Why would another innate realm demon beast come here? The powder shouldn't affect it. » said Yun Chen to himself with a worried expression.
But after clearly seeing which beast it was, he finally understood the situation.
«A steel-feathers black eagle! I understand now. They are ach enemies and since the snake was nearly exhausted by the other beasts it wants to take advantage of this situation and kill it. » deducted Yun Chen.
In other occasion, the eagle is not an opponent to that snake even if they are both innate realm demon beast, but it is a different case now that the snake is tired.
«Things have become more interesting. I will strike rich if it ends well. » said Yun Chen after some reflection.
«Let's wait and see how it will end. In any case it will benefit me. » declared Yun Chen while spectating from a distance.
The snake finally took notice of the eagle after clearing all the beasts. But the eagle took the initiative to attack first with its black feather and using wind to direct them.
«This eagle is using the wind element so, it must possess a good wind element spirit root. » said Yun Chen after looking at the eagle's attacks.
But the snake didn't seem to back off even a little so it must have some trump cards up its sleeve.