23 Demonic Beast 2

"Ah, we have been walking for five hours already. Even if I am not tired, this is too much! What happened to all the creatures?" Lu Yao wasn't complaining. She tried starting a conversation with Xue Mo. Her fake pouting lips and sobby eyes didn't escape Xue Mo, who only stared at her with a blank face.

"W-what's with that look on your face?" Lu Yao saw him looking at her as if looking at an idiot, and that made her feel like one.

It was then that both of them thought, 'Am I changing?' Clearing their heads from useless thoughts, Xue Mo answered her,

"Shouldn't you behave your age? I mean, your acting won't work on me. So don't try. If you want to talk, say it up front, don't beat around the bush." Xue Mo exaggeratedly said while looking at her as if she's an idiot. His face had a scowl, eyebrows raised while a disdaining smirk was on his face.

'This is how you act, my naïve partner.' Xue Mo thought while chuckling inwardly. Lu Yao had also noticed what he was doing, making her feel ashamed for believing him. She ignored him as payback.

Arriving near a stream, they were disappointed to find that there were no monsters or magical beasts. Even Xue Mo felt annoyed as this was wasting time.

Even if he was an old man and patience comes with age, as they say, he wasn't a person who liked to waste time.

If it were cultivation or something productive, he wouldn't mind spending an infinite time on, but if it were looking for something with no results, he would.

Deciding to go back since there was no use waiting, he turned around and offered Lu Yao to climb onto his shoulder, who readily agreed.

However, just as they started moving, a chattering sound rang out through the forest, followed by a trail of snapping trees in which direction was the river Xue Mo and Lu Yao were near.

Both of them quickly acted. At the same time, Xue Mo that he started running with her on his shoulder, she pushed him away, barely avoiding a fist coming to her direction.

The shockwave of the fist reverberated throughout the river, which made a splash, showing how powerful the attack was.

At the time, they finally saw their attacker. It was a monkey with two heads and seemed to be twice the size of Xue Mo, while blue fire covered his fists.

Noticing the aura, the monkey was emitting Xue Mo frowned as he thought it felt nice being near it. He looked at Lu Yao and asked, "What is this?"

"I think we have just found out why the forest was empty of monsters and magical beasts." Lu Yao's words didn't answer his question yet also gave him some info to work with.

"This creature is a demonic beast. It is a mutation that happens while monsters become magical beasts. It could be anything from a change of color, element, to multi changes like gaining a new head and getting a property like this guy. However, one thing is for sure: they are called demonic beasts because they are bloodthirsty and insane.

The mutation usually happens because some dark or negative energy influenced them."

Xue Mo finally got his answers, and they didn't please him. From what he understood, there was one thing clear-they knew nothing.

"Stay a little back." Remembering that they agreed not to use their energies and that this could also be good training for her, Lu Yao shouted at Xue Mo.

Understanding what Lu Yao wanted, he complied and stayed away, watching the battle from a distance.

Seeing that the one he tried to kill had escaped successfully made the monkey disoriented for a second, giving Xue Mo and Lu Yao the time to talk.

Once he regained consciousness, a wave of anger flooded him, making him release a malevolent aura that coordinated with the fire his hands were emitting, letting it intensify.

He howled at the sky and hit his chests, producing a banging sound before looking at Lu Yao with bloodshot eyes. 'Yup, a demonic beast.'

She concluded that she would lose, but before that happened, Lu Yao wanted to see how far she could go with her weak stats and small form against a full-fledged demonic beast.

The monkey kept striking her or at least trying. However, with her experience, although barely being able to dodge his punches due to her low stats, Lu Yao started getting used to the rhythm, making it easier to evade.

The monkey didn't let up with his attacks; instead of slowing down or getting tired, the opposite happened. He started throwing faster and stronger punches. With every blow, it emitted a heatwave, incinerating a part of the forest's landscape, turning it into ash.

At the sight of that, Lu Yao sweated from nervousness, but this also helped spark her experience as her battle-honed instincts took over, allowing her to use her small form to her advantage and again getting used to the monkey's attacks.

In the end, her experience wasn't enough. Although it allowed her to survive until then, her low stats and her current form had hindered her stopping her from being able to continue.

Xue Mo had noticed this and didn't hesitate to release his shadow needles at the monkey's joints, eroding them slowly.

In no time, the monkey died while his body started getting consumed. Seeing it as an excellent opportunity to test the skills his status as a Shadow Light Parasite had given him, Xue Mo possessed the dead monkey and left it before it could completely dissolve. He noticed that like before, he didn't get stats, but he got the form of the monkey. And it's fire.

Xue Mo ignited the fire using Mana, just like how Lu Yao taught him, making a blue fire light up in his hand. Before he could check it out, he felt his Shadow Soul Pressure creep up and seep into the blue flame. In front of Xue Mo and Lu Yao's eyes, the blue-colored fire turned black while it emitted a weaker version and a different aura than the one Shadow Soul Pressure had.

Xue Mo had many questions, but he knew that even if he tried researching it now before the seals on his soul were unlocked, he wouldn't find anything.

***

Flashback end

Hearing a caw in the air, Xue Mo and Lu Yao looked up to see a huge-sized raven with blue eyes and four wings set his eyes on them. But they didn't panic. Instead, Xue Mo felt that this might be an opportunity to find what caused the mutations, even getting some stats and affinity if this bird had one wasn't farfetched.

After cawing a second time, the raven dived with an open beak, trying to bite Xue Mo. If this was a year before, the blue-eyed raven might have been able to do it, but now even if he didn't want it, Xue Mo's stats allowed him to fight using his hands easily.

As the raven tried to close its mouth to swallow them, Xue Mo and Lu Yao didn't even budge. Stretching his hands, Xue Mo left the raven's beak open before slowly widening it.

The crazed raven started trying to retaliate, but it didn't have an affinity. Only its physical body mutated, leaving it with no other ways of attacking or defending.

Xue Mo didn't break it at once. Instead, he slowly widened the gap, making the raven feel itself being torn apart.

After a minute of useless struggle, Xue Mo finished it and broke the raven's mouth, relieving it of its misery.

He didn't waste time admiring his work. Instead, he possessed the raven immediately and took its form, stats, while leaving nothing but a dead body.

Sorting the raven's memories, he noticed something it had in common with the previous demonic beast that they killed.

Both of them were near a cave when they were turning into magical beasts. This info helped Xue Mo and Lu Yao narrow down or even pinpoint the location they searched for prior. The place where the origin of the negative energy was.

Telling Lu Yao about the info, they used the raven's memories and made their way to the cave to check if they would find anything.

***

Arriving at the cave in less than an hour, Xue Mo felt menacing energy similar to the raven and the monkey from inside it. Rather than feeling afraid, he felt comfortable. But he had some theories regarding why that was.

Searching the cave inch by inch, they weren't able to find the precise place the source of energy was at. Xue Mo even thought about breaking the whole cave down to see if it was underground.

Fortunately, while searching the walls, Lu Yao had felt that one brick seemed off, deciding to check it out. She found that it was a fake rock.