Chapter 16: Traces of a Fierce Battle (Part 2)
But no matter how abnormal it was, it no longer had anything to do with him.
Three years had passed, and all clues had vanished. He couldn't possibly go back three years and come here to search for the cause, could he?
The motivation that had kept him here was simply to make up for the regret of not being able to witness the past. Now, it seemed like no big deal.
"If that's the case, then there's nothing to see."
Shaking his head, Uchiha Uran turned and left. While it was rare for him to encounter a human, even a corpse, it meant he wasn't far from human life.
He actually hoped to stay as far away from human society as possible. After all, humans didn't have the bestial instincts of spirit beasts. Staying around them for too long would literally kill them.
As time went on, he went deeper and deeper, the branches and foliage grew denser, and the light was no longer as abundant as before.
The paths carved by the spirit beasts also helped him find his way. There were no roads in the world, but with the passage of spirit beasts, they became roads.
The Star Dou Great Forest was vast, everyone recognized it, but its vastness far exceeded people's imagination.
After another full day of walking, by nightfall, Uchiha Uranium could still sense that his surroundings were no different from before.
This place was even stranger than a maze. While the trees varied, the shrubs were remarkably replicated, cluster upon cluster. And even after walking for so long, he could still sense that he was still on the periphery.
The spirit beasts that had previously inhabited the surrounding area were driven away by his presence.
They either spread outward, competing for survival with spirit beasts of equal rank, or burrowed deeper, vying for survival with the terrifying thousand-year-old and even ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts.
However, the probability of this happening was low, as he wasn't at the edge of the depths, but rather on the periphery.
This meant that his opponents were limited to hundred-year-old spirit beasts, and at most, a few thousand-year-old spirit beasts, like territorial giants. The rest posed no threat.
He couldn't tell whether the thousand-year-old spirit beasts had lost their fear of nuclear radiation, prompting the Exploding Owl Bear to attack him, or if there was something wrong with the Exploding Owl Bear itself.
He could only say that he had encountered too few thousand-year-old spirit beasts, far too few to test his hypothesis.
"Ah, the new place is indeed more charming than the old one!"
After sighing for a moment, Uchiha Uranium turned his head and surveyed the pitch-black surroundings. While others would find this place dangerous and unsettling, the young man felt an unprecedented sense of security.
He slept in mid-air. Two strong vines were tied between two trees, and within them lay a large vine bed, similar to a hammock, except it was higher, nearly three meters off the ground. Simply climbing up to sleep there was difficult, not to mention the risk of breaking bones if he fell.
He was having fun.
His current spirit master's physique was different from before. He wasn't afraid of a fall of five meters, let alone a three-meter cricket.
For safety reasons, he had placed traps all around him. It wouldn't matter if they weren't used, so he'd leave them there for now.
This was why he chose to sleep in mid-air. He feared that something might suddenly attack from underground, bypassing the traps and attacking him. He wasn't in the safest camp anymore, so to prevent a situation like the Exploding Owlbear, he preferred to be on the safe side.
After three days of travel, Uchiha Uran finally encountered something unusual. He air was thick with the smell of blood.
Unleashing his spirit, Uchiha Uran didn't hold back, instead mobilizing all his soul power. He left the area if he noticed anything amiss. Then, he began to explore cautiously.
Since there was a bloody smell, the spirit beast that had attacked was also nearby, so he couldn't afford to be careless.
Soon, the young man arrived at the area where the bloody smell was strongest.
Blood poured out like ink, splattering onto the surrounding trees, shrubs, and branches. This amount of bleeding far exceeded that of two or three men.
Even a large spirit beast would die from such a loss of blood. Furthermore, the blood hadn't yet clotted, remaining fresh. This signified that the predator hadn't gone far.
This was a slaughterhouse.
A massive, bull-like soul beast had perished here. The fatal wound to its abdomen, likely caused by energy, showed no traces of claws or teeth. However, it bore numerous wounds, and most of the blood spattered from these wounds.
This suggests that before completely slaying its prey, it tormented it for a while, brutally bleeding and slaughtering it.
Finally, tired of killing its prey, it gracefully departed without consuming any of its internal organs or flesh.
This was the scene Uchiha Uranium imagined. It was clear this predator was preoccupied with killing, unconcerned with the prospect of satiating itself.
This fully demonstrated the intelligence of this soul beast, no longer content to kill simply for survival, but primarily for its own pleasure.
"It's a bit like a cat."
After watching for a long time, the boy came to a conclusion.
Cats do behave like this, torturing mice, birds and other creatures weaker than themselves. When they have had enough fun, they will end the suffering of their prey.
"But since this soul beast won't touch anything, I will accept it with a smile. Hehe, this much meat is enough for me to eat for many days."
Uchiha Uranium smiled and rubbed his hands. He took out a dagger from the space soul guide, which was a bit old but still gleaming with a cold light, and began to cut the meat.
After a while, after cleaning up, the boy put away the tools, looked at the harvest with some satisfaction, and after making sure there was nothing else left around, he continued to move forward.
After a while, he came to a place with obvious signs of a fierce battle.
Uchiha Uranium slowly squatted down, picked up a ball of soil from the ground, and began to explore the surroundings.
Both parties had long since departed, but traces remained. Judging from the splattered mud, the battle likely occurred within the past few days.
Both were likely agile, one utilizing powerful soul power, while the other possessed both strength and speed, with physical prowess rivaling that of soul power.
This inference stemmed from the cracks in the fallen trees, which appeared to have been split open instantly and then slowly toppled over, rather than being chopped off piecemeal like a chainsaw.
The other soul beast's situation was even simpler, as evidenced by the numerous gaping, sweeping, and other physical blows.
The splattered blood and mud suggested neither side had gained any advantage. After the brief exchange, each side, wary, withdrew.
He wasn't analyzing this out of boredom, but to broaden his horizons and better analyze the distribution of soul beasts in the surrounding area, drawing on information from his books.
Most importantly, he hadn't encountered this kind of soul beast battle in ages, and he was genuinely bored. Such interesting things were rare to see. If he had a notebook, he'd even want to record them.
As far as he knew, there were quite a few soul beasts living in the forest that were extremely fast and used cutting-type abilities.
However, given the current situation, there weren't many soul beasts between the hundred and thousand-year level that could evenly fight a soul beast with both speed and strength.
They could be anything from a Blue Wolf to a Wind Leopard, an Iris Beast, a Flying Gorilla, or anything else.
Finally, after seeing the tracks on the ground, the young man's expression became strange. He sat up, feeling somewhat depressed, and leaned against a surviving tree, resting his hand on his forehead, mumbling something unconsciously.
"How could I be so stupid? I thought about it so much, why didn't I check the tracks first? I didn't even look at something so obvious. How could I be so stupid?"
On the ground, the marks of four toes and a paw pad were clearly imprinted.
It was a wolf's track.
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(End of this chapter)