42: West Lake

"Big Water Buffalo!" Hearing this, Wei Xun became interested: "Do you know its location?"

Facing Wei Xun's question, Horn suddenly panicked: "Instructor, you're not thinking of looking for that Big Water Buffalo too, are you?"

"Why not?" Wei Xun scratched his chin with his finger: "That Big Water Buffalo must be quite heavy. Bringing one back would complete several days of our mission quota."

"But I heard that Big Water Buffalo is very powerful!" Horn was a bit worried, clearly very afraid of the rumored Big Water Buffalo.

"There are over a dozen of us Yao Beasts combined!" Wei Xun chuckled: "Facing just one Yao Beast Realm Big Water Buffalo, if we can't even take that down, then we're really failures as Yao Beasts!"

Horn had brought three Yao Beast teams this time, a total of ten Yao Beasts.

Adding the two, Xiong Er and Da Huang, that Wei Xun originally led, there were thirteen shapeshifted Yao Beasts, not counting Si Niang.

Wei Xun didn't believe there was any Yao Beast that could be that powerful.

Seeing Wei Xun's determined gaze, Horn could only truthfully explain: "I only know the general area. It seems to be by a large lake in the West, about ninety li away from here."

"Alright, then we'll go there!" Wei Xun said, then led the team towards the West.

Xiong Er and Da Huang followed closely, while the newly joined Yao Beasts trailed behind.

Because there were many Yao Beasts in Black Tiger Mountain, wild beasts, Spirit Beasts, and Yao Beasts were extremely scarce within a twenty to thirty li radius of Black Tiger Mountain.

To get food, they had to go further away.

Along the way, Wei Xun would occasionally use the Cultivation Techniques Smooth Wind Ears and Ten Mile Tracking to pay attention to the surroundings.

If he was lucky, he might even discover one or two wild beasts or Spirit Beasts hiding in the Forest, but most were small animals with not much meat, so Wei Xun rarely bothered to chase them.

However, on the way to the lake in the West, Wei Xun still led about ten Yao Beasts and successfully ambushed a Black-haired wild boar full of fat.

It looked like it should be a Spirit Beast, weighing at least four to five hundred catties, and one was enough to turn in two days' worth of mission quota.

Then Wei Xun had four small Yao Beasts in the team carry the hunted wild boar back to the Mountain, otherwise, such a heavy pig would be very inconvenient to carry around.

He himself continued towards the lake in the West with the remaining Yao Beasts.

The Cultivation Technique Ten Mile Tracking was very convenient, allowing one to smell all sorts of scents within a ten-li radius.

However, he was not proficient yet, but Wei Xun could at least clearly distinguish scents within a three-li radius.

That Black-haired wild boar just now had a distinct boar smell, which was why it couldn't escape Wei Xun's pursuit.

As for Smooth Wind Ears, currently, Wei Xun could hear some faint sounds within at least two or three li.

Although the further away, the more indistinct the sound, the footsteps of wild beasts moving through the Forest not far away, and the sounds of their bodies rubbing against leaves and grass, could not escape Wei Xun's ears.

Using these two skills for hunting was simply overkill.

However, these two Cultivation Techniques also consumed a lot of spiritual power, so they could not be used continuously; Wei Xun would only use them when needed.

Since they had already completed today's hunting mission in advance, Wei Xun quickened his pace and soon led the remaining Yao Beasts to the large lake that Horn had mentioned.

The lake surface was calm, and looking across, Wei Xun found the lake to be quite large; the trees on the opposite side of the lake appeared somewhat blurry.

"There must be a lot of fish in this lake!" Wei Xun looked at the suitable fishing spots by the lake and sighed with emotion.

If he had a fishing rod now, he would definitely sit by the lake and fish.

Compared to Wei Xun's calm demeanor, Horn and the other Yao Beasts looked a bit scared.

They had already transformed into Yao Beasts, yet they were afraid of Yao Beasts, which was simply an embarrassment to Yao Beasts.

However, after Wei Xun arrived at the lakeside, he used the two skills, Ten Mile Tracking and Smooth Wind Ears, to search for the rumored Big Water Buffalo, but he couldn't find any trace of it.

And because there were many wild beasts and Spirit Beasts living in the Mountain Forest around this large lake, their numbers were too vast for Wei Xun to clearly distinguish what was what.

Although he hadn't detected the Big Water Buffalo's trace for now, Wei Xun, after careful discernment, sensed the presence of several other Yao Beasts in the nearby Forests.

He still needed to go and see if it was that Big Water Buffalo.

So, Wei Xun followed the scent, leading the remaining Yao Beasts slowly towards the direction from which the Yao Beast's scent came.

Because he was afraid that the concentrated Demonic Qi of too many Yao Beasts would scare away the Yao Beast prematurely, Wei Xun specifically had the Yao Beasts spread out, surrounding the location like a large net with himself at the center.

However, Yao Beasts are very sensitive to Demonic Qi. Before Wei Xun and his group could get close, the Yao Beast hiding in the Forest had already slipped away at an extremely fast speed, and it was unknown what it had transformed into.

However, compared to Yao Beasts, the wild beasts and Spirit Beasts in the Forest had much weaker senses.

Although they didn't catch that Yao Beast, during the encirclement, Wei Xun and his group managed to catch a Deer.

It was just past noon, and under Wei Xun's leadership, several small Yao Beasts dismembered the Deer and began to gnaw on the raw meat with grunts and chomps.

They were originally patrol Yao Beasts, and usually had few opportunities to hunt, so they were usually in a state of hunger.

This time, joining the hunting team gave them the chance to eat their fill, so they all devoured their food ravenously.

In contrast, Xiong Er appeared much calmer and didn't gnaw on raw meat like the other small Yao Beasts.

Instead, he quietly waited for Wei Xun to light a fire and make roasted meat.

And Wei Xun's month of experience playing with fire also gave him new cooking methods.

Previously, the meat was directly placed on the fire to roast, which easily burned it.

This time, Wei Xun simply found a flat stone slab, then placed firewood between two stones, and the stone slab was placed on the fire to heat up.

When white smoke rose from the surface of the stone slab, Wei Xun placed the fat from the Deer onto the stone slab and used the high temperature to render out the oil.

Then Wei Xun laid the neatly cut Deer meat on the stone slab, making stone slab roasted meat.

Watching the roasted meat on the stone slab slowly cook, Wei Xun also pulled out a small bottle. Inside was a small jar of salt he had previously plundered from a human hunter. After sprinkling the salt on the roasted meat, the aroma instantly spread throughout the entire Forest.

And those little Yao Beasts who had never seen such a cooking method suddenly felt that the raw meat in their hands was no longer appealing.

Xiong Er also kept swallowing his saliva on the side, quietly waiting for Wei Xun to feed him.

And seeing Wei Xun's new way of roasting meat, Xiong Er felt very fortunate in his heart, glad that he didn't agree to be Tiger King's personal guard back then, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to eat such fragrant food.

Seeing that the cooking was almost done, Wei Xun directly reached out and picked up a piece of fried roasted meat and threw it to Xiong Er.

Xiong Er was drooling with greed. After getting the roasted meat, he didn't care how hot it was and stuffed it directly into his mouth.

Predictably, Xiong Er's face twisted in pain from the heat, unable to spit the meat out or swallow it.

This made Wei Xun burst into laughter.

Wei Xun, on the other hand, appeared much more refined. Even though he had become a Yao Beast, eating slowly and chewing thoroughly still made the food taste better.

But just as a group of Yao Beasts surrounded Wei Xun, wanting a bite of roasted meat, a pair of crimson eyes in the nearby Forest were staring intently at Wei Xun and his group.