The moon was high in the sky when a gigantic shadow hid it. It was far but as big as an elephant with wings twice wider than its body when fully deployed. Its features were difficult to distinguish but Feng Yingyue knew what it was as soon as she heard its screech.

It was a Mountain fenghuang, a sub-species of phoenix. This kind of bird was a 3-Core demonic beast. Moreover, it was considered as a sacred bird by cultivators. Feng Yingyue did not even know that such a beast lived in these mountains. She was overwhelmed with curiosity and admiration and turned toward Cao Yun.

"Guo, let's go observe it!"

Cao Yun was a little worried. What kind of beast could have hurt a 3-core demonic beast? He was more worried that a human had done it, a fenghuang was a symbol of virtue and most cultivator would be very reluctant to kill one unless they were in danger, or very greedy. And a greedy cultivator was a huge threat, even more so than a powerful demonic beast.

But he had to admit, he was as curious as Feng Yingyue. The bird was injured and Cao Yun could probably get some of its blood without fighting it. The blood of a 3-core demonic beast would greatly boost his cultivation.

"Yingying. With utmost caution!"

Feng Yingyue nodded with a huge smile.

They both made their way through the woods. They were very careful trying to hide their presence as much as possible. A 3-core demonic beast was on par with a 9th-grade Mortal and could even fight against some 1st-grade Mortal Warriors. Even injured, this Mountain fenghuang could probably still kill them, and the reason for its injury was even more dangerous.

When they finally got close enough to see it, Feng Yingyue and Cao Yun were amazed by its elegance. Its head was golden and it had the long legs of a crane made of jade. It tail was similar to a peacock wheel. The bird turned its eyes toward the humans. There was no animosity in it, but only caution. Its body was covered in blood, sticking its feathers together. Feng Yingyue felt sad for this beast. Yes, they had killed demonic beasts on their way, but this one had a special air around it and none of them seemed to be able to harbor bad intentions against it.

Feng Yingyue bowed and cupped her fists.

"Noble beast, I beg your forgiveness. We were curious about your appearance. This one may be incompetent, but I have small achievements in alchemy and medicinal herbs. May this one approach you to better see your wounds?"

Some 3-core demonic beasts were known to comprehend human intentions. They were not yet able to understand their speech, but they could make out the gist of it through their attitude. The fenghuang stared at the little girl for some time. It clearly saw her sincerity and thus it bowed its head and looked away.

Feng Yingyue approached carefully while Cao Yun was watching her. He did not want to make the beast wary and just kept his distance. The young girl did not know what took over her but she really wanted to help this majestic beast. The fenghuang moved its wing to let the girl inspect its body. Cao Yun decided to keep watch. He hid a few meters away at the top of a tree.

Feng Yingyue took all her time so as not to harm the beast. The wounds were pretty big, these were traces of fangs and the distinctive sign of corrosion from poison. The fenghuang had a strong vitality and could defend against this venom. She racked her brain to figure out which beast was responsible. It should be a huge snake, or something similar. She finally decided that it was not important right now. Knowing the attacking beast would get her clues regarding the kind of poison but she could do without that. She began by washing the wounds with fresh water from one of her pouches. She mixed several ingredients together to appease the pain. The fenghuang let out a small moan but let the human do her work. It clearly felt its pain going away.

The young alchemist was very careful and focused. She had lost any perception of her surroundings. Usually, she would not allow herself to be so immersed in her work in the middle of the woods but she was with Cao Yun. Her trust in him was absolute. She had known him for around a month now, and he had even helped her reach 2nd-grade Mortal.

Cao Yun heard a small sound and focused his senses toward it. He could see trees falling one after the other. It was zigzagging through the forest, but it was obviously going their way. The movement was terrifyingly fast. Even if has was running with all his strength, Cao Yun could not keep up with it. He tried to trace back the origin of the movement. Apparently, it was coming from the peek of the mountains. The wounded phoenix was called a Mountain fenghuang and obviously, as its name stated, it lived in the mountains.

The wood they were in was on the flank of a rocky mountain with many peaks. Cao Yun quickly surmised that the fenghuang was probably nested on the peak the movement came from and the so-called movement was the attacker. Strangely, Cao Yun was relieved, for it was clearly a beast and not a human cultivator. Such a beast relied on its strength and physical attributes whereas a cultivator could be way more cunning, with many weapons and tools at his disposal.

Cao Yun jumped down and ran toward Feng Yingyue. The fenghuang opened its eyes and looked at the boy. It was not worried because it remembered the human who was with the woman treating it. From the behavior of the boy, the bird understood he was warning them. Its head rose from the ground and it scanned its surrounding. The earing of the beast was very well developed and it recognized the threat right away.

"Yingying, a huge beast is rushing here!"

Feng Yingyue was startled. She had been immersed in her treatment for almost twenty minutes, and she was coming out of a daze by hearing Cao Yun's voice.

"Were you able to identify it?"

"I am not so sure. It should be a huge snake. Huge enough to break down the trees on its way."

Feng Yingyue mulled over the clues she had.

"A bashe! At least, a kind of bashe. It's similar to a python, but big enough to swallow an elephant whole. From the wounds I treated, it should have some poison, but not that potent. From my guess, it should be a Muddy bashe, a 3-core demonic beast. Usually a Muddy bashe would not prey upon a beast as powerful as it is. So, it's possible that it's in the process of forming its fourth core and just could not resist the temptation of eating another 3-core demonic beast. Well... I'm just guessing, but it's very likely."

"Can the fenghuang fly?"

"Given its state, I'm not even sure it could manage a very short fly, at best a few minutes before collapsing, if it even succeeds in taking off."

The fenghuang was very alert but it still understood that the humans were worried about its fate. It turned toward them and shook its head as it knew humans did. It got up on its legs and tried to jump. However, it almost instantly fell back down. The poison from the bashe was not deadly to a fenghuang but partially paralyzed its legs.

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"Yingying, can you make a cure?"

"Now that I know what beast produced this venom, I think I know what this is. So... yes! I have the ingredients, but this will take some time."

Feng Yingyue went back to the side of the bird to try and help it. Cao Yun was racking his brain to come up with a plan. The safest thing to do would be to abandon the fenghuang and leave with Feng Yingyue. However, he knew she would not want that and Cao Yun himself really wished he could help this beast as well. He made up his mind. If he could not come up with a plan very soon, he would take Feng Yingyue away, by force if need be, no matter what she may think of him.

The fenghuang noticed the conflict within the boy and pushed him softly with its beak. When Cao Yun looked at it, the bird tightly closed its eyes and flicked its beak toward the movement before closing its eyes again, keeping them shut with force. Cao Yun's face lit up. This bird was smarter than both of them thought. But it also meant that this bashe could be this way as well, alas. Cao Yun rushed to Feng Yingyue.

"Tell me what you know about the senses of a snake. They must have a good smell, right?"

Feng Yingyue was surprised by the question but kept her calm and answered as extensively, and shortly, as possible.

"Their smell is very powerful. They use their tongues to catch the scents within the air and send them to special organs to identify them."

"Do you still have some Charred Cow's Knees? Both raw and boiled in fresh Lunar tears?"

"Yes, I kept half of it raw after making the decoction. You want to use it against the bashe?"

"If I remember right, the root itself has a strong and awful smell, but once prepared, it's some kind of anesthetic, right?"

"Right..." Feng Yingyue finally understood. "Right! But a bashe can also detect heat. It has special pits that can pick up our temperatures."

"Would it be able to spot us very far in these woods?"

"Probably not, it should rely on its smell right now. Without it, I doubt it will be able to pursue us as expertly."

"Then, my plan should work. But once again, Yingying, your martial art will come in handy."

"What?!"

"I don't have any weapon, and your martial art has several special throwing techniques. Precision is the essential part of my plan. If you can't do it, I see no other way to save this fenghuang, in which case, I will ask you to leave it."

"No! I will do everything you want! I trust you!"

Cao Yun explained exactly what he wanted to do. Even the fenghuang listened carefully. It could not understand the words but it was intelligent enough to get the gist of it. Cao Yun put everything in order. And he hated himself right now. The only way he found to save the day was to put Feng Yingyue in a terrible situation. If he were stronger, or if he only knew the right techniques, that would not be necessary. But he had no time for self-loathing this very moment.

He had taken some blood from the fenghuang, mixed with the poison of the bashe to be sure to convince it that was the real deal. He was trying to create a fake track to lead the bashe where he wanted it, as far away as possible.

Feng Yingyue was applying the blood from other demonic beasts killed by Cao Yun on the fenghuang to mask its natural smell. Cao Yun was keeping a lot of blood to help during his cultivation and it was really coming in handy right now, especially thanks to Feng Yingyue. Since they had met, she used herbs to maintain the blood fresh and stop it from coagulating. The fenghuang hated the process but let her do it because it knew these humans were putting themselves in danger for it and it had understood their plan. It made sense.

When she was done, Feng Yingyue bowed to the bird and ran away as fast as she possibly could.

Cao Yun had never ran as fast, even with his 3rd-grade Mortal cultivation, he was exhausted. He had slalomed through the trees to make the bashe follow the smell through a difficult path. When he stopped, he breathed deeply and tried to calm down. If he had not miscalculated, Feng Yingyue should be able to reach him just before the bashe, despite its speed. She knew her way around a forest while the bashe was just rushing through the trees to get to its prize.

Cao Yun made final preparations. It was the most dangerous moment in his life since the time he almost got sliced in half by the assassin of his parents. Once again, he thought about his little sister and pictured her bruised and dead body before convincing himself she was still alive and then putting all these thoughts away.

Feng Yingyue finally arrived. Before she could even take a breather, she took position in a tree.

When Cao Yun felt the tremor in the ground and heard the trees being uprooted one after the after, he set the final part of his plan in motion. He had poured some liquids in several places to facilitate this moment. He set them all on fire. They were not big fires, but many small ones.

The head of the bashe finally appeared. This head was a wall of scales the color of autumn leaves. Neither Feng Yingyue nor Cao Yun knew a snake could be this big. It was almost nine chi* tall and they could only imagine that its body covered at the very least ten times that. Its scales changed color the further from its head, becoming the color of dirt. The eyes of the beast were gouged out, apparently by a beak pecking them. That was what the fenghuang tried to tell Cao Yun.

Arriving here, the bashe was confused. It had been tricked by the smell. The demonic beast blood had hidden its real prey from it and it was on a wild-goose chase. Without its eyes, the bashe followed its nose but the smell stopped here. It could still see silhouettes thanks to small pits below its nostrils sensitive to heat. But with all these fires, it was very confused. However it could tell that the large body of its prey wasn't here.

The bashe was deadly silent. It began to flick its tongue more aggressively as if it was trying to catch something in the air. And it was, it was attempting to track the scent of its prey. As its frustration grew, it started hissing angrily. Cao Yun and Feng Yingyue only heard their own heartbeat that was so much louder than anything. The fenghuang was also a 3-core demonic beast but it was friendly enough, the bashe on the other hand was exactly what they imagined a 3-core demonic beast to really be. Even though they were mentally prepared, they just realized that they were too naive. Fear had seized their entire body. The bashe was moving its head left and right while flicking its forked tongue. The snake was becoming more and more frustrated.

Feng Yingyue was observing its tongue. She only had one chance. When she felt she was ready, she threw several needles in its tongue. These needles had been covered in either the Charred Cow's Knees or the anesthetic made from it. The first ones produced a pungent smell covering everything else, and the others put the tongue to sleep, at least for a time.

As soon as the needles pierced its tongue, the bashe instinctively put it back in its mouth. And that was the moment the smell flooded its mouth, the beast contorted its massive body in all kinds of spasms. It really did not like this smell at all. Trees, dirt and rocks were flying around the convulsing beast. It tried to take its tongue out but the anesthetic was already taking effect and the snake could not control it. The smell was polluting its senses.

Feng Yingyue jumped toward Cao Yun and they both ran into the woods. Cao Yun was faster and yet stayed behind Feng Yingyue, both to protect her because he was stronger but also because she was better at navigating in these woods. As they were running, the ground was shaking and trees were flying above their heads. The bashe was convulsing from discomfort as well as from rage and was destroying the woods around itself.

When the Muddy bashe cleared its mind, it tried to follow the needles thrower but was blinded by the fires. Without its eyes and its smell, it could only discern silhouettes through their body heat. It began to extinguish the fires by simply using its body to cover them.

Despite their running, the boy and the girl were not breathing at all. Feng Yingyue was right, the bashe was ready to form its fourth core. The idea of a 3-core demonic beast was already scary as it was but a 4-core was an unimaginable monster to them. They ran around in random directions for some time, just to be sure the bashe could not get their track, and then went back to the fenghuang.

After their little stunt, it would be more difficult for the monstrous snake to find them. Its heat vision was very limited and the smell would disturb him for some time. Feng Yingyue should be able to help the fenghuang fly and it could then leave without their help.

*Approximately, 1 chi = 1 foot = 0.33 m