12dz Chapter 3 First Steps into the Mountains
Chapter 3 First Steps into the Mountains
When Zhao Chen landed on the edge of a nearby mountain range, it was almost dawn.
Standing on a protruding rock, Zhao Chen looked back at the distant forest of withered bones. The "place" where he had lived for more than ten days had now shrunk into a faint shadow on the horizon.
"It's time to move on."
He murmured to himself.
He had already plundered almost all the gnawable bone fragments and scraped marrow powder from the Bone Forest. The remaining massive skeletons were incredibly hard, and with his current strength, he couldn't break through them yet. To become stronger, he had to venture into the continuous black mountain range before him—there were more prey and stronger opponents there.
Even though it's dangerous, it's worth the risk.
Turning his gaze away, Zhao Chen looked around.
This is a continuous, black mountain range, steep and rugged, riddled with cracks and caves. Occasionally, faint rustling sounds come from the depths, like the slow crawling of some creature in the darkness.
Activating his newly awakened soul perception, Zhao Chen looked around.
One zhang, two zhang, three zhang...
The surrounding scenery unfolded clearly in my mind: a few small insects were hiding in the cracks of the rocks, and there was a cave deep in the cracks of the mountain wall, where a faint trace of life was gently undulating.
"There are living things."
Zhao Chen was overjoyed and flew in that direction.
-
The cave was not deep, appearing to be only three or four zhang deep.
Zhao Chen flew into the cave cautiously, keeping his soul perception constantly alert and not daring to relax for a moment.
Deep within the cave, a beetle the size of a fist lay on a rock, nibbling at a layer of dark green moss on its surface. This touch of green was extremely rare and precious on this desolate planet.
Without thinking further, Zhao Chen lunged forward.
The beetle was quick to react, but Zhao Chen was even faster. With a single swipe of his claw, the beetle's hard shell tore apart, and after a few struggles, it was completely lifeless.
Zhao Chen swallowed the beetle, and a faint warm current slowly spread out.
However, this warm current was much weaker than that of the lizard they had hunted before, and the improvement in their soul power was negligible, almost imperceptible.
"Too weak." Zhao Chen shook his head gently.
But it's better than nothing.
Zhao Chen continued searching in the cave and found two more beetles of the same size, which he devoured one by one.
The combined energy of those three beetles is less than that of a single bite of a lizard's flesh and blood.
But Zhao Chen was not discouraged.
He knew this was just the beginning.
-
For the next three days, Zhao Chen wandered slowly along the edge of the mountain range, hunting down any creatures he could see.
There are far more creatures here than in the Bone Forest: beetles hiding in the crevices of rocks, small lizards clinging to the rocks, and those fist-sized poisonous scorpions we encountered several times.
Every hunt is a small-scale life-or-death struggle.
The stingers of those scorpions were all highly venomous. Zhao Chen was almost stung when he first encountered them, but he narrowly avoided it, tore it apart with his claws, and swallowed it. Afterward, Zhao Chen could vaguely feel that his body had gained a slight resistance to the venom.
"It can even absorb toxin resistance." Zhao Chen was somewhat delighted.
Over the past three days, Zhao Chen has hunted down a total of seventeen creatures and devoured their flesh and blood.
Its body size has increased significantly, its feathers are more robust, and its claws and beak are sharper. Its speed, strength, and reaction time are all much better than they were three days ago.
Most importantly, the range of his soul perception expanded from five zhang to ten zhang.
Within a radius of ten zhang, Zhao Chen could clearly see where the prey was hiding, where the danger was, and where there were hidden caves.
This gave him even more confidence to survive in the perilous mountains.
-
On the fourth day, Zhao Chen finally met his true opponent.
It's a snake.
A giant snake, over two zhang long and entirely black.
It coiled behind a huge rock, its entire body covered in fine scales, its triangular head held high, its scarlet tongue flicking in and out. Its aura was far stronger than the lizard they had encountered before; this was a true predator, a ruler of its own domain.
By the time Zhao Chen discovered it, it was already too late.
Although Zhao Chen's soul perception covered ten zhang, the snake was hiding behind the giant rock, concealing its aura. He could only vaguely sense a life fluctuation, but he didn't know what it was.
As he rounded the giant rock, he came face to face with those cold, vertical pupils.
escape!
This was the first thought that flashed through Zhao Chen's mind.
But the giant snake was faster than him.
Its body suddenly shot out, its blood-red maw opened wide, and it pounced straight at him!
Zhao Chen flapped his wings desperately, narrowly avoiding the attack, but the snake's tail followed closely behind, sweeping across and striking him heavily.
"Bang!"
Zhao Chen was violently slapped and sent flying, crashing into a dead tree trunk, instantly feeling excruciating pain all over his body.
Not daring to be negligent in the slightest, Zhao Chen got up, turned around, and fled.
But the giant snake was hot on its heels, moving at an astonishing speed.
Zhao Chen flew upwards, squeezing into the crevices of the rocks. In the end, the giant snake, due to its enormous size, could not squeeze into those crevices and could only hiss angrily from the outside.
It is unknown how much time passed before the giant snake finally chose to leave.
Zhao Chen landed on a rock, panting heavily, with several wounds on his body.
"That's too powerful..."
With his current strength, a direct confrontation would almost certainly be suicide.
But there was no fear in Zhao Chen's eyes; instead, there was a hint of excitement.
This snake is so powerful, if I could devour it, what a tremendous transformation I would undergo?
"Once I become stronger, I will definitely come back and avenge this grudge against you," Zhao Chen murmured to himself.
-
In the days that followed, Zhao Chen became even more cautious.
They no longer ventured deep into the mountains, but continued hunting weaker creatures on the edges. After each hunt, they would move to a different location to avoid being targeted by giant snakes or other predators.
On this dead star, time began to become exceptionally blurred.
Zhao Chen could only estimate, based on hunger and exhaustion, that it had probably been another seven or eight cycles of "waking up - hunting - digesting".
As expected, its size increased again, its feathers became denser, and its claws and beak became sharper.
The range of soul perception gradually expanded to twenty zhang.
More importantly, Zhao Chen vaguely sensed that a transformation was brewing within his body—a sign that he was about to break through and become stronger.
"It's time to settle the score with that snake."
Standing up, Zhao Chen looked towards the depths of the mountains.
In recent days, he had used his soul perception to explore that area countless times, and had already figured out the giant snake's activity patterns:
During the day, it would perch behind the giant rock, and at night it would return to its cave to rest; every now and then, it would go out to hunt.
Zhao Chen chose to make his move on the day it went out hunting.
-
That evening, the giant snake left its nest as usual to go out hunting.
Zhao Chen used his soul perception to pinpoint its location from afar, and only after it had completely disappeared did he quietly sneak into the snake's nest.
Deep inside the nest, there were three snake eggs, each the size of a fist.
Zhao Chen was stunned for a moment, then without the slightest hesitation, he pounced on it and began to devour it.
The energy contained within the snake eggs was far more concentrated than that of ordinary flesh and blood; each time he swallowed one, the resulting warm current almost overwhelmed him. Zhao Chen endured the dizziness, swallowed all three snake eggs, and then turned and slipped away.
Not long after, a furious hiss came from behind them.
Found.
Zhao Chen flew with all his might, plunging headfirst into the narrow crevice he had already chosen.
The giant snake coiled wildly outside for a long time, but ultimately could not enter and could only leave unwillingly.
Zhao Chen curled up deep in the crevice of the rock, feeling the surging energy within his body, and couldn't help but smile.
After digesting the three snake eggs, he would go back and settle accounts with the giant snake.
By then, it's still uncertain who will be the hunter and who will be the prey!