Trap and Breakthrough

'I broke too many of my ribs so I can't climb up any trees or make any hard movements' Lin thought, 'There's a blood trail. I can't escape. I need to get rid of them.'

Lin slithered through the forest, when a sudden pain hit him. Hissing in pain, Lin took a deep breath, ignoring the aching pain in his body. He forced himself onwards, heading deeper into the forest. He knew that the pursuers were catching up to him. 'I won't escape if it goes on like this.' He had to plan something, or he would be killed.

'I could make them fight another beast.' Lin thought. 'There!' In front of him was a cave in a cliff, it was filled with darkness and was at least five meters high. Lin remembered hunting one day, stalking his prey. He remembered feeling a powerful presence from that cave. That day, he felt a fear he had never felt before. He knew that it could end his life as easily as crushing an ant. Lin dragged his tired body, making a blood trail to the cave. Then, he dragged his tired body back on the same path, hiding under a bush.

'That's the best I can do.' Lin worriedly thought, 'Hopefully they follow the blood trail. Don't see the second trail of blood under the bush. If they do, that's my bad luck'

Two minutes passed, and Lin heard footsteps coming closer. Lin slowed his breathing and stopped all his movements. His life depended on them not noticing.

"That snake is nearby" A man reported to the leader. "The blood is new."

"When I find it, I will make sure it does not die so easily... How dare it make us follow it for so long and even kill one of us!" The stocky man leading the group cursed with a chilly voice. The group of men felt a chill down their spines.

The bandits continued following the trail, and eventually came to the spot next to Lin. A bandit eyed a place where the blood was thicker than normal. That was where Lin had hid himself, but made the puddle inevitably bigger.

"That looks suspicious"

"Don't even bother. It probably took a rest there."

The man took one last suspicious look at Lin's area, and looked away. Luckily for Lin, none of the three bandits spared a second glance at the puddle of blood near the bush. 'That was close. Wait...' Lin thought, 'Why are there only three? Where is the fourth?' Lin immediately went on high alert, keeping his body as still as possible.

Ten seconds passed, and a man walked past. The man was tailing the team. His purpose was to make the prey have a false sense of freedom, causing them to show themselves. The tail would then notify the team. If Lin had not noticed the missing man, he would have been caught by the tail, and his plan would have fallen apart.

Lin waited until the man left, then let out a breath of relief. 'Had I not noticed, I would have been a goner' He thought. Lin poked his head out, making sure not to be caught, and watched the group head to their doom from the darkness.

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After reminiscing about how he had escaped, Lin thought to himself, 'I really should get stronger. Strong enough so that I won't be beaten so easily.'

'It was powerful', Lin analyzed, thinking back to the presence in the cave. He had overheard men talking about hunting it. There were bounties worth 40,000 spirit stones to kill it and bring its demon core. Many cultivators had went searching for it, looking to gain glory and wealth, but none had ever returned.

Lin felt insignificant, thinking about how the men who had required him to spend so much effort to survive against was easily killed. 'He is at least middle 4 star, maybe even high 4 star, compared to my insignificant peak 1 star cultivation.'

Lin made his way back to his den somewhere along the fringes of the forest on a tree. Exhausted, he laid at the base of the tree. Out in the fringes, it was safer, with weaker creatures like him. Deeper in the forest existed powerful creatures with powers that eclipsed all creatures he knew. 'Eventually, I will be stronger than them all, and make them fear me,' Lin vowed to himself.

Lin woke up feeling refreshed. His wounds were healing quickly. Lin started his morning routine of cultivating in the shadows. The demonic beast cultivation system that he knew of consisted of 9 stars, each with four ranks, low, middle, high, and peak. Each rank has different qualities of demonic energy. At the end of each star, there are bottlenecks that require transformations of demonic energy. Every beast is born at 1 star, with a demon core. At one star, the demonic energy cannot be used to fight. Only at the 2nd and above were they useful.

Lin followed a cultivation technique from a memory from his bloodline, called Shadow Cultivation. Lin controlled his demon core to suck in darkness attributed demonic energy, which he drove through his blood arteries and capillaries. This cultivation would strengthen his blood vessels, which would strengthen his body, increasing his power. To break through to become a 2 star demonic beast, Lin needed to be able to make a skin of demonic energy around his scales.

Lin dragged his energy out, but immediately felt it start to dissipate too quickly. Lin tried to solidify the energy, by compressing the flow of energy. 'Compress!' Lin hissed in his mind, using all his willpower on controlling the energy. Feeling his mind tiring, he persevered, and heard a cracking noise. He felt his energy merge together. Immediately, he felt the consumption of demonic energy drop.

'Success!' Lin had made barrier. He was tired and out of demonic energy, but felt excited. It was crude and could be broken easily by others, but Lin was happy. Lin had made it into the true path of cultivation. He would finally be able to start utilizing demonic energy for fighting.

Lin felt his head begin to ache. A sudden spike of searing pain hit Lin's head, causing him to lose consciousness.