Zhang Hanshan felt utterly humiliated, and followed behind the group like a lost soul.
He Lanxin pointed at the demon fox in Mo Chuan's hand and asked, "Are we going to kill it?"
"Uh..." Mo Chuan was about to nod when he felt someone tugging his sleeve. He looked back to see Mo Fei blinking her large eyes and whispering, "C-can we not kill it... I... I want to keep it..."
"..." Mo Chuan couldn't resist Mo Fei when she looked like that. He turned back and said to He Lanxin, "We plan to sell it for money. We'll just collect some blood and that's it."
With that, Mo Chuan lightly sliced the tip of his grappling hook, and dark red blood flowed from the demon fox's front paw. It dripped into the test tubes of their watches for himself, Mo Fei, and He Lanxin.
"Alright, let's go," Mo Chuan said, bandaging the demon fox simply, then handing it to Mo Fei. The five of them continued onward.
After a while longer, Mo Chuan and the other four arrived at the riverbank.
The river wasn't wide; it was more like a stream. Mo Chuan took the distributed water bottles and began to fill them.
"We've been walking for several hours, and the sun is so high now. It must be around eleven o'clock," Tang Jingjing squinted at the sun and said, "Shall we find a place to set up camp and prepare some food?"
"Okay," He Lanxin nodded. "Mo Chuan, go gather firewood. Mo Fei, go fill the water bottles. Tang Jingjing and I will look for a campsite. Zhang Hanshan, go fishing."
Everyone nodded and began their respective tasks.
Zhang Hanshan went to the riverbank, leaving his shoes and socks on the shore. He waded into the river barefoot to catch fish. However, the fish here were not ordinary fish; their reaction speed and strength far surpassed normal fish. Zhang Hanshan fumbled for a long time but couldn't catch a single one.
Looking at his empty pockets, Zhang Hanshan could already imagine Mo Chuan's sarcastic expression.
"No way! I absolutely cannot lose face!"
Zhang Hanshan pondered for a moment, then seemed to have an idea. He chuckled, reached his hand into the water, and released his ability: "Ming Wang Nu!"
A terrifying aura immediately spread along the river. Soon, several fish with their bellies up began to float downstream. They were likely stunned by Zhang Hanshan's ability.
"Hahaha, as expected of me," Zhang Hanshan laughed, wading through the water to scoop the stunned fish ashore.
Meanwhile, Mo Chuan was searching for dry branches in the grass and low bushes upstream of the river.
"The dead branches by the river are a bit damp..." Mo Chuan looked around and decided to check further away.
Just as he was about to look around, a tree caught his attention.
"What is this..." Mo Chuan observed for a moment, and his expression instantly darkened. "Rank two demonic beast, claw marks of a Rock Armor Bear. This is its territory..."
Mo Chuan was about to leave to notify his companions when he turned around and almost cried out in alarm. The Rock Armor Bear had somehow crawled out of its den and was drinking water exactly on the path Mo Chuan needed to take back to the meeting point.
"Holy cow..." Mo Chuan swallowed, thinking thankfully that it hadn't discovered him. He moved slowly, intending to bypass the Rock Armor Bear and return.
On the other side, after filling her water bottles with fresh water downstream, Mo Fei hung them from her waist. She was about to return to boil the water when she seemed to remember something. She took out the still-sleeping little fox from her waist pouch. Seeing that no one was around, she knelt by the river and began to wash the fox's fur.
As the little fox felt the coolness, its mind gradually cleared. Its big, watery eyes slowly opened, and it found itself being washed by a pair of fair, tender little hands.
"???!" The little fox immediately raised its alertness to the highest level. It seized the opportunity and bit down hard on the hand that was washing its neck.
...
"Have you found them?" Ye Shaolong threw the corpse of a Rank one Gray Mane Wolf to the ground and asked Xu Ziru.
"Still searching... this eagle is flying very high, I can't see clearly," Xu Ziru said, forming hand seals, her eyes glowing white.
"We only have three more demonic beasts to go to complete the mission. Now we just need to find them," another person, a tall and thin man, said to Ye Shaolong after collecting the blood.
"That guy..." Ye Shaolong recalled the previous day's experience and gritted his teeth. "I, Ye Shaolong, have never endured such humiliation. I will personally twist the head off that guy named Mo Chuan..."
Before he finished speaking, a distant demonic beast's roar attracted the attention of the five people.
...
Mo Chuan finally managed to maneuver around the Rock Armor Bear and move downstream. He let out a soft sigh, looking at the Rock Armor Bear still drinking water, and thought, "Okay, you're blocking the road~"
However, as soon as Mo Chuan turned around, a powerful and intimidating aura instantly swept over the area. The Rock Armor Bear felt provoked and looked upstream.
A person and a bear made eye contact, and the atmosphere immediately became tense.
"Roar!!!—"
"Holy shit shit shit shit shit!!!"
On the other side, Zhang Hanshan contentedly packed the fish into his bag. Just as he was about to go ashore, he heard a demonic beast's roar from upstream.
"Roar!!!—"
Looking at the mountain birds flying up in the distance, Zhang Hanshan shivered and hurried to find He Lanxin and the others.
Meanwhile, the little fox was about to bite when it heard a demonic beast's roar from further upstream. It froze in fright, its teeth bumping against Mo Fei's hand.
Mo Fei, who had just been distracted by the roar, immediately noticed the anomaly in her hand. She quickly cupped the little fox and looked at it, smiling happily. "Great! You're awake! Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something? Or drink some water?"
The little fox suddenly broke free from Mo Fei's hand. A white light flashed around it. The next moment, a fox-eared, white-haired young boy with a large white tail covering his private parts, his face flushed red, pointed at Mo Fei and said, "You! You pervert! My body has been touched by you for so long, I'm not clean anymore!"
"???" Mo Fei looked at the fox-eared youth, her eyes gradually showing a peculiar gleam. "Humans... at least it's worth a try..."
She immediately put on a gentle expression and said, "Alright~ I just wanted to clean you up. After all, I didn't save you from them just to harm you~"
With that, Mo Fei patted the youth's head, but the latter resisted. "No matter what you say, you..." Before he could finish, a rumbling sound came from the youth's stomach.
The youth's face instantly turned bright red. Mo Fei smiled and said, "It looks like you're hungry~ Do you want to eat?" As she spoke, she took out a can distributed to the examinees from her bag.
Without waiting for the youth's consent, Mo Fei opened the can. The savory aroma of meat and beans immediately spread. The youth, who had intended to refuse, heard his stomach growl again upon smelling the scent.
Mo Fei smiled slightly, revealing her little canine teeth. "How about it, do you want to eat?" With that, she subtly moved the can closer to the youth's nose.
"No!" The youth, with a flushed face, tried to move away, but his feet were very difficult to move. He looked at the can that was so close and shouted, "I, Su Yueqing, would rather starve to death, be beaten to death, jump off this cliff, or be eaten by a bear, than eat even one bite of your food!!!"