Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of thunderous booms echoed throughout the depths of Thousand Beast Forest. Roars and cries of demonic beasts could be heard in the distance. After several minutes of this, the noises stopped and there was only silence.

A figure emerged from the foliage into a large clearing. It was a tall, muscular, valiant looking youth carrying a large spear in one hand, while dragging the lifeless body of a massive lizard-like demonic beast behind him with the other. The lizard beast probably measured more than 15 meters long from head to tail, with saw-like teeth and claws like razor blades. Its carcass left a deep groove in the earth as it was dragged along. The youth dragged the carcass and dropped it into a pile of similar demonic beast carcasses. There were at least five or six other slain beasts piled up there.

Atop the pile sat a handsome youth with pitch black eyes. His long dark hair was tied in a ponytail that fluttered gently in the wind. He had a satisfied smile on his face as he watched the spear wielding youth drag the beast carcasses.

“Well done little brother Zhao Feng. Your strength really has improved by a lot.” Mu Chen praised him.

“Big brother Devil Emperor overpraises me.” Zhao Feng replied in a humble tone.

Over the past few weeks, Mu Chen and Zhao Feng had gone into the deepest depths of Thousand Beast Forest, right outside the core region. They had been indiscriminately slaughtering demonic beasts left and right. Mu Chen would kill the beasts, then let Zhao Feng gather up their corpses so he could absorb them in one go. It was quite an efficient system. With Zhao Feng’s assistance, his rate of killing and absorbing demonic beasts increased by a large margin. The second section of the stone tablet was already almost lit up.

Right now, they had just finished up another batch. Mu Chen happily absorbed the blood essence of the slain beasts, but left one behind. It was a bird-like demonic beast. This one was quite troublesome to kill, Mu Chen had to leap onto a tree and climb onto its back to finally be able to kill it.

“Come, let's eat this one. Bird demonic beasts are the tastiest.” Mu Chen pointed at the bird carcass. “You go set up a fire, I’ll handle the bird.” He instructed.

Zhao Feng got out some supplies and set up a fire, while Mu Chen got a large knife and started cutting up the carcass. Using his spiritual energy he cut it up with expert precision, separating the bird into a dozen nice sections. It was as if it had been done by a professional chef. Mu Chen got some wooden sticks and systematically spit roasted the parts over the fire. The fragrance of roasted bird soon wafted through the air. Saliva began to drip from Zhao Feng’s mouth when he smelt the fragrance.

“Wow, big brother, were you also a Chef Monarch in the past? Did you learn it yourself? Or perhaps from a master? ” Zhao Feng’s eyes were filled with genuine awe. Not only was his big brother’s combat skills unfathomable, he was also a master chef on top of that!

Mu Chen rolled his eyes inwardly. He had spent a good amount of time in the wild and had eaten metric tons of demonic beast meat. How could he not know how to roast a low level bird demonic beast?

“Eat.” Mu Chen shoved a piece of demonic beast meat into Zhao Feng’s mouth, shutting him up.

“Mmmm, Mmm mmmmm.” Zhao Feng mumbled with his mouth full.

The two of them talked as they ate. Mu Chen asked Zhao Feng more about Azure Dragon City, the capital of the kingdom, and how it was like there. Zhao Feng was more than happy to talk about his home, telling Mu Chen about the famous landmarks, as well as the story about how the kingdom was founded a few hundred years ago. Just as they were in the midst of conversation, Mu Chen abruptly gestured for Zhao Feng to stop talking. He slowly turned his head to the side, looking in a particular direction.

“Someone’s coming. Let’s hide.” Mu Chen said in a low tone. Zhao Feng’s expression turned serious when he heard. The pair swiftly gathered up their items and climbed atop a tall tree, hiding themselves in the foliage.

Mu Chen would periodically use his spirit sense to sweep the area. Most of the time, he would only detect demonic beasts. This time, he had detected two humans heading in their direction, and these two humans were not weaklings. They were both at the peak of the Mortal realm.

It was best to hide and see what they were up to first. Remaining below to confront these newcomers could potentially cause unnecessary trouble. Mu Chen was also concerned that it could be people from the Mu Clan looking for him. If so, he wanted to avoid them.

The two individuals soon came into view as they strode into the clearing. They were youths, both dressed in identical black robes, with a crimson red ‘九’ (Nine) character emblazoned on their sleeves. They walked over to the slain demonic beasts that Mu Chen had absorbed earlier and began inspecting them.

“Senior brother, look at this. The carcasses are all dried up!” One of the men exclaimed as he pointed at the carcasses.

“Looks like the work of a human, not a beast. See, the fire here is still warm.” The other man commented as he squatted down to inspect the remains of the fire Zhao Feng had set up earlier.

“Where are these people then?” The junior brother asked.

“I don’t know, but they must have left recently.” The senior brother frowned as he replied.

“Hey senior brother, let’s go find and kill them! Maybe there are women with them. I haven’t tasted a woman in a while!” The junior brother said with a lascivious smile on his face.

“Devil cultivators.” Mu Chen's eyes flashed with a violet glow. “Likely from a sect of some kind.”

Zhao Feng’s eyes narrowed as his grip on his spear tightened.

“Calm down.” Mu Chen whispered as his hand grabbed Zhao Feng’s shoulder.

He closed his eyes for a few moments, then reopened them. He had used his spirit sense to sweep the area one more time. There was no one else around. He was free to act now.

“Alright, leave this to me.” Mu Chen smiled. His body flickered with bolts of lightning as he instantly vanished from his original spot.

The two devil cultivators saw a shadow being cast over them and quickly raised their heads to look, but it was too late.

Swish, swish! The sound of an object slicing through the air at lightning speed could be heard.

Mu Chen landed soundlessly on the ground, right between the two devil cultivators. He held the kitchen knife from earlier in his hand.

The two devil cultivator’s eyes rolled to the back of their heads and they abruptly collapsed onto the ground. Using the blunt edge of the knife, Mu Chen had knocked them both out without leaving a single wound on their bodies.

Thump! Zhao Feng leapt down from the tree and landed heavily beside Mu Chen, leaving small cracks in the ground beneath his feet. Compared to Mu Chen who landed in a cat-like manner, he resembled a clumsy elephant.

“Big brother, are they…?” Zhao Feng asked as he poked one of the motionless devil cultivators with his spear.

“Don’t worry, they’re still alive. I need them that way. Tie them up.”

They got some rope and tied up the two cultivators. Mu Chen jabbed each of their bodies several dozen times in seemingly random places at lightning fast speed.

“Big brother, what are you doing?” Zhao Feng asked with a curious expression.

“Temporarily sealing their meridians so they cannot use spiritual qi. It's done, come help me carry them and then follow me.”

Zhao Feng hung the two unconscious devil cultivators by their shirts from each end of his spear and carried it across his shoulders. Mu Chen led the way. They soon found a small cave in the rock face some distance up.

“Let’s go up there.” Mu Chen pointed to it.

The two of them climbed into the cave and threw the two devil cultivators on the ground like two sacks of flour.

“What are we going to do with them?” Zhao Feng scratched his head in confusion. Why did they bring these two here? Wasn’t it easier to just get rid of them?

“I’m going to find out what they know.” Mu Chen grinned.