Somewhere else in the forest, Yang Chen landed on his feet. He opened a small pouch strapped to his side. "Xiao Hong, you can come out now." From out of it came a small red bird. It flew up and perched on his shoulder.
"Help me locate all the intermediate stage demon beasts." Yang Chen said to the bird.
As if it understood, it nodded and flew up. After scanning around, it flew off with a trail of fire. Yang Chen immediately dashed after it.
Yang Bai would definitely go after the advance stage demon beast. Yang Chen thought. Although I'm not that much weaker than her, there is no guarantee that I'll be able to snatch the beast core from her. It'll be better if I just hunt the intermediate stage demon beasts. According to my father, there should be about 5 of these. As long as I hunt all of them, I should be able to win first place.
Yang Chen smirked at the thought. Go ahead and hunt, Yang Bai. By the time you've finished, I would have already won.
****
Yang Chen's guess was completely correct. At another location, Yang Bai looked around. Seeing the barrier in the distance behind her, she knew that going forwards would mean going deeper into the forest. Without hesitation, she started to run.
Yang Chen had also reached the eighth rank of body tempering. Yang Bai thought. He would definitely aim for the advanced stage demon beast. I must get there first and kill it.
If Yang Chen didn't have a method of tracking demon beasts, he too would be running towards the center. Except, he does have a method, and because of this, Yang Chen was in no rush to venture into the core of the forest.
****
High up in the sky, a man flew around in a cloud and watched them. He was sitting on a cloud with a bored expression. This man was one of the three heavenly qi stage experts; the most ordinary looking one.
"Hai, why am I sent to babysit these kids?" The man complained. Noticing something interesting, he sat up and stopped moving.
"That brat called Yang Chen seems to have brought a chicken to this event. Not sure if it'll be of any help to him." He smiled in amusement. Pets were allowed in the event, but only those at the rank 1 initial stage. Initial rank 1 magic beasts don't usually have any combat abilities thus pets aren't usually seen.
Seeing the bird fly, he raised an eyebrow. "A flying chicken it seems."
Then he watched the "chicken" zoom away. "Wow a fire flying chicken. Not only that it seems to be going in the direction of the intermediate stage ground lizard…"
A thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "It seems like this chicken isn't any ordinary magic beast. It appears to be able to detect the presence of other demon beasts."
"Eh? Xiao Bai is charging straight to the center." He took notice of Yang Bai. Unlike the other cultivators, she was moving really quickly. "Seems like she's aiming for the advanced stage demon beast. Unfortunately, since Yang Chen's red chicken can locate intermediate stage demon beasts, it looks like Yang Bai won't be getting first place."
****
"Mengyao, I want to hunt the advanced stage demon beast. What do you think?" Yang Bin asked Yang Mengyao.
During his training with Yang Gang, he had never defeated an advanced stage demon beast. But now that he had access to talismans and got an extra helper, Yang Mengyao, he was confident that he could defeat it, and even if he couldn't, escaping shouldn't be a problem.
"That sounds like a good idea." Yang Mengyao smiled and agreed.
"Good, follow me." The two started running towards the center.
"I heard from dad that you've been training with mom." Yang Bin probed while running. He was curious about what she was doing the past few days.
"Yep. I don't want to be a burden to you during this event." Yang Mengyao replied.
Yang Bin laughed "Be a burden? I'm much weaker than you, how can you be a burden to me?"
"Mom said having strength, but not knowing how to use it, is no better than being weak. So the past few days, mom forced me to train non-stop." Yang Mengyao said glumly.
Yang Bin looked at Yang Mengyao in shock. He knew very well that Yang Mengyao hated cultivating and training more than anything else. For her, it was just torture.
"But as long as I can help you, it was worth it." Yang Mengyao smiled again.
Hearing this, Yang Bin couldn't help but smile. "Then, what did-" He paused and stopped running.
Yang Mengyao stopped as well.
In front of them, there was a leopard. A faint white halo floated about two meters above its head. Discovering the two, it slowly stood up from the rock it was resting on.
"An initial stage demon beast." Yang Bin frowned slightly. He wasn't sure what the beast was. "I'll take care of it." He said, as he took a step forward.
Yang Mengyao grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Brother, wait. Let me. I need to gain some experience in hunting, and this initial stage demon beast is weak enough for that."
Yang Bin wanted to protest, but after hearing her reasoning, he reluctantly allowed her. "Fine, but be careful." Even though he knew she was much stronger than the beast, he had never seen her hunt a demon beast before, so he was a bit worried.
Yang Mengyao nodded and walked towards the leopard. She took a deep breath and her face became stony and expressionless, as if she had become a different person. Of course, Yang Bin, who was behind her, didn't notice.
The leopard became tense, as it watched Yang Mengyao approach. It bared its fangs and growled.
But this didn't intimidate Yang Mengyao, as she continued to approach the leopard. Silently, she coated her hand with a thin lay of qi, so thin that neither the leopard nor Yang Bin saw it.
When Yang Mengyao was about 3 meters away from the leopard, it sprung into action. With a low roar, it pounced on Yang Mengyao.
Unfazed, Yang Mengyao jumped over the wolf and, with smooth movements, did a flip. While in midair, she swiped the back of the leopard's neck. That seemingly gentle swipe caused the leopard to collapse and blood to spray, but none of it touched Yang Mengyao who had gracefully landed behind it on her feet.
Yang Mengyao turned around and smiled at the gawking Yang Bin. "Not too bad right?"
Yang Bin quickly composed himself, but he was still in shock. He knew that the back of a leopard's neck was really tough. Not only was there tough fur, the spine wasn't so weak either!
"That was really good." Yang Bin praised her. "What technique was that? It looked like you simply swiped at the wolf's neck and it died."
"This was one of the techniques mom taught me." Yang Mengyao smiled. "It's called Crescent Cut. The technique coats your hand with an incredibly thin and sharp layer of qi." She raised her arm and showed it to Yang Bin.
Studying it with Mystic Pupils, Yang Bin was able to see it.
"I'm not sure what rank this technique is, but it's really hard to learn. I'm not strong enough yet. If I was, it would have been a lot cleaner." Yang Mengyao continued, slightly crestfallen.
Yang Bin winced and suddenly felt ashamed of himself. "Alright, let's get the beast core and continue heading towards the middle of the forest." He coughed and changed the topic.
"Alright!" Yang Mengyao cheerfully replied.
****
"I think we're quite close to the center now." Yang Mengyao said, as she looked around.
After defeating another initial stage demon beasts and some regular beasts, they're nearly at the center. The first thing they noticed was the change in air. Just as Yang Yugang said, the further they went, the denser the qi. At this point, the qi was almost tangible, and the air was heavy.
Yang Bin cut aside a branch. "There's too many obstacles, and my vision is blocked." He frowned. He didn't expect it to be so difficult to navigate through and ran out of ideas.
"I could climb a tree, if that helps." Yang Mengyao suggested.
"That's a good idea." Yang Bin agreed.
With a few nimble jumps, Yang Mengyao landed on a branch near the top of the tree.
"Do you see anything?" Yang Bin yelled from below.
Yang Mengyao scanned the area. Aside from seeing the sea of trees all around her, there was nothing noteworthy. Just as she was about to reply, she saw a flash of golden light in the corner of her eye. Immediately, Yang Mengyao turned her head and looked in that direction, and sure enough, there was another flash of golden light.
"There's something that way!"