"I just sensed it. There are only two demonic beast presences ahead, and one of them is very weak, seemingly on the verge of death."
They were now fully covered in leather, and as long as they didn't intentionally release their aura, low-level demonic beasts wouldn't be able to detect their presence.
This was something Lu Heng had figured out after encountering several waves of level four demonic beasts. While he could rapidly increase his level through cheating, some experiences still had to be gained through actual combat.
However, the demonic beasts ahead were not of high level. The one with a strong life aura seemed to be only level five, and the one that had been killed was only level four.
Even though Blood Wolf had lightened its steps, its claws still made a loud noise when they touched the ground, despite being covered by the leather.
The sound of artificial leather rubbing against the ground, "ge zhi ge zhi," was quite piercing.
Lu Heng directed Blood Wolf towards the demonic beasts ahead, while also controlling the vines in the forest to spread out in different directions.
The thin vines quickly weaved across the ground, and would be imperceptible if not observed carefully.
The vines moved faster than Blood Wolf. In a short while, Lu Heng sensed a coolness.
"This is a cold-blooded animal." As the vines touched the wriggling demonic beast, their branches became even thinner.
Lu Heng controlled the vines to cling to the demonic beast, trying to discern what kind of demonic beast it was.
He was not familiar with the demonic beasts of the Shen Yuan Continent. Fortunately, most of the demonic beasts here were similar in appearance to animals before the apocalypse, with only minor differences in details.
"This is a snake? And a very large snake."
"A giant python?" Blood Wolf's pupils, hidden behind the gas mask, suddenly widened. It immediately thought of the giant python that had killed its mother.
Such giant pythons were not common in the forest. Although these types of demonic beasts were quite prolific, their nature prevented them from raising their young like mammals. Some of the newly hatched young snakes would even be eaten by other large snakes nearby.
It was not easy for a snake to reach adulthood. Unless it was naturally venomous, it might be able to escape by relying on its poison.
However, giant pythons were non-venomous snakes. In their juvenile stage, when they were not of high level, their survival rate was very low.
Therefore, when Lu Heng mentioned it was a giant python, Blood Wolf's instinctive reaction was to think of the giant python that had killed its mother and younger sibling.
At that time, the giant python was of the same level as an adult Blood Wolf, both being level four demonic beasts. However, the mother Blood Wolf, who had recently given birth, was still in a weakened state.
The mother Blood Wolf, driven by the instinct to protect its young, and perhaps hindered by the need to protect the little Blood Wolf, was not surprisingly injured by a level four giant python.
Sensing Blood Wolf's shock and anger, Lu Heng stroked its fur and communicated with it through his mind, "It's okay. No matter if it's the beast that killed your mother and brother, you can take revenge by destroying it later."
Blood Wolf nodded. For an eighth-level beast to defeat a fifth-level one was not a problem at all.
"Let's go, let's kill it," Lu Heng said, patting Blood Wolf with his mind.
Carrying Lu Heng on its back, Blood Wolf quickened its pace. At this moment, it was eager to see the giant python die before its eyes.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
After walking for a short while, Lu Heng and the others could vaguely see a slowly moving figure ahead.
Indeed, it was a giant snake as thick as a child's waist. However, this giant snake was not as long as those seen on television programs, only about four meters long, appearing short and stout.
"The demonic beasts here are so peculiar," Lu Heng exclaimed, looking at the figure moving away from them.
"Uh, it doesn't quite resemble the snakes I've seen in nature documentaries," Blood Wolf said. After being contracted by Lu Heng, it had also watched nature documentaries with the director and others, where various animals looked different from the demonic beasts of the Shen Yuan Continent.
However, there were still some similarities. For example, the giant python they were seeing now only differed in its body proportions from snakes in the apocalypse.
As if sensing danger, the giant python suddenly stopped wriggling, reared up its front half, and coiled itself. Then, it began to search for the target that made it feel threatened.
When the giant python's head turned towards Lu Heng and them, their six eyes met, and the giant python did not turn away.
Although it could sense danger, Lu Heng and Blood Wolf's auras were both concealed by their leather attire. The giant python could not ascertain their levels, nor could it identify what they were from their appearance.
After a second of staring, the giant python arched its head, opened its mouth, and its scarlet tongue flickered incessantly, emitting a chilling hiss.
In the next second, Blood Wolf moved first. It manipulated the soil in the forest, creating a ring of earthen spikes that lunged towards the giant python.
Although it was an earth-elemental ability, at the eighth-level, the soft soil, under the control of earth-elemental energy, became as hard as steel.
The spikes directly pierced the lower half of the giant python's coiled body, pinning it to the ground. Red snake blood splattered out, falling onto the surrounding soil and grass.
Immediately, a pungent, fishy smell wafted out.
With its scales pierced and severely wounded, the giant python began to struggle violently. It continuously twisted the upper half of its body that was still mobile, and its tail tip, not pinned down, also twitched.
However, the pierced body prevented it from breaking free, no matter how much it struggled. The blood flowed even faster from the gaping wounds.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..." The giant python, sensing the loss of life, and being a level five demonic beast with rudimentary intelligence, stopped struggling and let out piercing hisses towards Lu Heng and Blood Wolf.
Then, it arched its front half again, gathering momentum to charge towards Lu Heng and Blood Wolf.
"It's about to attack. Should we see what its attribute is?" Lu Heng, still sitting steadily on Blood Wolf's back, communicated with it with great interest.
"Okay." Blood Wolf knew that Lu Heng possessed more attributes, which were called special abilities in the apocalypse, similar to the attribute categories in the Shen Yuan Continent.
Many magic-elemental attributes had counter-interactions. As a cultivator with multiple attributes, he had more counter-abilities when dealing with single-attribute attacks.
Suddenly, Lu Heng and them heard what sounded like flowing water rapidly surging towards them from not far away. Soon, the rapidly approaching water reached Lu Heng and them. What surprised the giant python was that the water automatically bypassed their location when it reached Lu Heng, continuing to flow into the distance.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss!" The giant python roared ferociously again. Immediately, countless water balls from the nearby water flow floated into the air and then rapidly shot towards Lu Heng and Blood Wolf.
At that speed, Lu Heng was certain that if someone of the same or lower level encountered this, their body would definitely be pierced by these fast-moving water balls.
However, the speed at which level five energy gathered was, in Lu Heng's eyes, like a slowed-down movement. Lu Heng also controlled those water balls to stop moving when they were still half a meter away from him, hovering in mid-air.