297: Chapter 239 297: Chapter 239 “Let’s see how formidable I am then.”
“Who’s afraid of whom?
We’ve fought before, bring it on!”
During the conversation, the Tree Demon turned other vines on the tree into blades, attacking its enemy.
At that moment, a fire appeared in front, intending to burn the vine whips.
The vines avoided the fire and sprayed green liquid in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
Engaged in a battle with the Fox Demon, the Vine Demon paid no attention to the humans, considering them beneath its notice.
Days before, these mortals had killed someone in the mountains, and while the Demonic Beasts feared them, they had not anticipated trapping them so easily today.
It seemed that the legendary might was nothing special after all, as the Vine Demon focused solely on the Fox Demon, dropping its guard against the humans.
The vine whips binding the humans seemed to have loosened a bit, and the Earl noticed as well, feeling the bind relax slightly, allowing his hand to move a little.
If he could move his hands even slightly, he’d have a chance to save himself.
The Earl understood why neither the incantation nor the Magic Wand had responded; some unknown substance was restraining his body, and without holding the Magic Wand in hand, the curse was useless.
“Bala bala bala”
The Earl began chanting a magic curse, first causing the Magic Wand to conjure an Illusion Realm, concealing them from view.
Within the Illusion Realm, the vine whips couldn’t exert their power.
The vine whips, still battling the Fox Demon, sensed something amiss.
By the time they took notice, the humans will have disappeared.
With their prey vanished, the vine whips directed their anger at the Fox Demon, its longstanding foe, with whom the Tree Demon had fought for many years.
“Fox Demon, it’s all your fault!
The humans vanished and ruined my plans.”
“Heh, how interesting.
These humans are quite crafty, even more so than me, a fox.
They’ve caught my attention, and I will catch them.”
Insulted but not annoyed, the Fox Demon chuckled merrily.
It wasn’t rooted to one spot like the Vine Demon and could move freely from its original location, which lacked the power of the Vine Demon.
It often amused itself by teasing the Vine Demon.
In these dense, wild woods with many Demonic Beasts, there was only one such Tree Demon.
They became enemies over one thing, of course, competing for prey.
In the area where the Vine Demon resided, animals wouldn’t appear for a long distance, and those that dug burrows would do so around the roots of the vine whips—a convenience for the Vine Demon’s consumption.
Seeing that the humans had disappeared, the Fox Demon found it pointless to fight there any longer and launched volleys of fire at the Vine Demon.
To avoid the fire, the Vine Demon could only spray green liquid.
While the Fox Demon could dodge, its body couldn’t move from the spot.
Unwilling to be reduced to ashes, the Vine Demon had no choice but to turn its green bodily fluid into water and spray it towards the Fox Demon.
Its roots furiously absorbed moisture from the earth, and with the fire and the Vine Demon’s vigorous absorption of water, the ground around the Demonic Trees became cracked and parched.
Protected by his Magic Staff, the Earl moved everyone to a safer distance, away from the reach of their spells.
They could now see clearly that the Fox Demon took the form of a beautiful woman in white.
Had the Tree Demon not mentioned she was the Fox Demon,
who would’ve believed such beauty wasn’t human?
The Fox Demon had reached a formidable level of shape-shifting.
“I’m done playing with you.
I’m off to hunt.”
With that, the Fox Demon transformed back into a fox and disappeared into the woods.
Seeing the Fox Demon attempting to flee, the Vine Demon used its vine whips to try and entangle her, stretching out its branches to pursue her over a great distance.
The Fox Demon was swift, appearing and eluding capture, continuously evading the Vine Demon over the years, leaving it with no means to retaliate.
“Ah, it infuriates me!”
As darkness fell, the furious cries of the Vine Demon echoed through the night in the deep mountains, frightening the perched birds into flight.
In the past, birds unaware of the Vine Demon’s fierceness would rest on the vines or build nests in the trees.
The result was always the same—they became the Vine Demon’s meal before they could even react.
However, distant birds witnessing this would spread the word, and over time, the Vine Demon became as fierce as any Demonic Beast in the deep mountains.
The small animals didn’t dare to approach; they would tremble at the sound from afar.
“Let’s go back!
It looks like we can’t have our barbecued meat.
Let’s hope we don’t encounter such dangerous demons again.”
The Earl dared not join the others in hunting small animals, fearing to run into demons like the Tree Demon again.
There was also a Fox Demon deep in the mountain, with danger lurking everywhere.
If the Fox Demon hadn’t appeared during that perilous moment, they would have fallen to the Vine Whip.
The young people were too concerned with survival to think about eating, and the veteran hunters, aware of the danger, agreed with the Earl’s plan, so they all headed back to the original cave.
The Earl held the magic wand, constantly chanting curses.
The magic wand emitted colorful light, enveloping their bodies with its glow.
This made them invisible to the outside world, as well as hiding the colorful glow of the magic wand.
In fact, foxes have an excellent sense of smell.
When the Tree Demon fought with her, those people were clearly there one moment and then gone the next, yet she could still smell their scent.
The Fox Demon didn’t tell the Vine Demon, of course wanting to keep the humans for herself.
In these deep mountains, let alone older people, even hunters who ventured in were eaten by other Demonic Beasts.
Today, having encountered such handsome men, these men had unique features yet were also very handsome.
The Fox Demon, transformed into a human, especially liked handsome men; feeding on their essence helped her cultivate faster.
The Earl, responsible for everyone’s safety, arrived at the cave and then used his magic wand to create an Illusion Technique at the cave entrance to prevent outsiders from entering.
“Aiyah, that scared me to death.”
The Viscounts entered the cave and, not caring that the cave floor was dirty underground, sat or lay down, their hands patting their frightened chests.
“Before, when we came in, perhaps because we didn’t venture deep, we didn’t meet Demonic Trees and the Fox Demon.”
The veteran hunter was also quite scared; he was old and didn’t want to die, as there were still people at home depending on him.
Even if coming out to hunt in the deep mountains was dangerous, such risky work was done for survival.
“Let’s eat some fruit!
If we can’t have the roasted food, that’s fine.
But I have some dry food here, let’s share it.”
The Earl took out a bag of dry food from a Storage Bag; it was prepared by his mother, who, seeing him on short notice, had packed a bag of dry food for him.
After a day of walking, the dry food had not gone stale inside the Storage Bag, and he marveled at how the Cultivation World’s Storage Bag was indeed a treasure.
“Thank goodness for your dry food, Earl.
After eating fruit, it seemed like the more we ate, the hungrier we got.”
“Yes!
Last time we felt very full after eating fruit, and we thought we could eat fruit here, so we brought only a little dry food, thinking we’d spend the night.”
“Right, I felt a bit hungry just now, and after eating the fruit, I actually felt even hungrier.”
Everyone chatted and nibbled on something food.
“I think the fruit may have drawn out impurities from your bodies, improving your physique, which is why your stomachs feel hungrier after eating—you feel even hungrier.”
Everyone agreed with the Earl’s explanation.
They had been walking for such a long time, sweating profusely, and had even washed their faces and drunk some water from the cave’s source.
After eating the fruit, it was as if there was a certain smell on them, which they hadn’t noticed in the face of such danger.
The Earl found a place with wooden planks to sit, and nobody felt like sleeping, as the cave in the deep forest was not conducive to a peaceful rest.
They always felt as if danger was slowly approaching.
The Earl didn’t believe the magic wand could protect them forever.
Only they could protect themselves.
The Fox Demon followed the scent; the heavy smell of sweat emitted by those humans allowed her to track them, yet she never saw their figures.
Their scent disappeared at one spot.
The Fox Demon circled the spot, scrutinizing the surroundings.
She did not notice anything amiss; the area was surrounded by trees, with no apparent place to hide people.
Could those humans have burrowed into a hole?
The Fox Demon used her magic to dig in search of clues but found nothing of value.