Ch12 The Serpent’s Plum

I start walking toward the sweet smell.

My feet move on their own.

Every time a gust of wind comes through, no matter how small, I get another whiff and shift my direction.

I make my way through heavy brush, downed trees, and thick muddy patches where it looks like no human has ever walked before.

Yet, the closer I get, the stronger the scent becomes.

Eventually, I don’t even have to wait for the wind. The strong scent fills the air.

Bugs and small creatures all around me shift and move in the same direction that I head, making me more vigilant, but it does not slow my steps.

That is, until a very faint orange glow hits my peripherals.

I squint my eyes and try to focus, but the darkness of the night shields my vision.

I hold my breath and keep my head down, walking slower despite all of the insects and even birds that would normally be sleeping at this hour all moving toward the light.

After passing a few more trees and stepping up over a large decaying log, I finally get a good look at the glow.

It comes from beneath a large slate boulder, where a long branch sticks out. It looks like a miniature fruit bush, but there is only a single fist-sized orange plum hanging from it. There is a visible aura radiating off it, and the scent is so potent that even 40 meters away my mouth waters.

I watch a rabbit make a break for the cave, hopping 5 meters every stride, with its eyes locked on the same fruit as me.

Yet, once it jumps in the air for its last stride, a wide-open serpent maw clamps down on its body.

In a single ground-shaking chomp, the rabbit is split in two.

Instead of devouring its prey, the dark-scaled creature spits out the bloodied rabbit head and front legs and retracts its head back into the darkness of the cave.

Half a minute later, an owl swoops down from a tree above and falls victim to the same fate.

It is instantly killed by the serpent in a single chomp. The dark brown eyes of this beast flash when it attacks, but blend in with the darkness once again just seconds later.

My breathing slows as I sit and watch animal after animal die trying to get their hands on this orange plum.

Almost half an hour passes, and the bloody wall before the cave becomes an eerie omen.

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Thousands of bugs and insects die before getting anywhere near the cave, like an invisible forcefield is stopping them from entering. Even small animals like mice and squirrels pass out before getting within a meter of the serpent.

There was a very short section in the booklet given to me by the sect, mentioning that if an animal walks the path of cultivation, they can ascend the tiers of qi refinement just like humans.

They are called spiritual beasts…

This is definitely one of them.

From this distance, it is impossible for me to tell how strong it is, or how many other creatures may be lurking in this forest.

I almost want to turn around and run away from the danger.

Yet, as soon as this thought crosses my mind, the aura around the orange plum completely changes.

There is a mass shifting of all the eyes in the forest at once. A wave of an even stronger scent bursts out of the fruit as it fully ripens.