Sponsored Content

When she finally stopped, seeing the giant demonic beast a few li in front of her, she finally understood the shallow gashes on the ground without any uniformity . She froze and thought to herself . 'Ah, the applicant that encountered this must have been a female . '

In front of her was a giant centipede emmitting a rotting smell . It's long body was able to wrap several times around a group of three trees and it's long legs kept moving, making clacking sounds when they hit each other . It also served to prove how hard they were . It's head was resting on it's body, facing the opposite direction Shen Tianyu was standing in . It was probably recovering from the injuries sustained during it's last encounter .

'Nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope . I'm not dealing with this thing, absolutely not!' Shen Tianyu paled and immediately turned to run away . 'The proctor didn't say there were rankings on the demonic beasts tamed anyways, so it soesn't have to be this one!' The crow following her also flew after her when it sensed she was running away . Thankfully, it didn't make any sound to attract the giant creature's attention .

Sponsored Content

Only when Shen Tianyu was a long distance away did she finally breathe a sigh of relief . She patted her chest to try to calm her rapidly beating heart as her watchcrow squaked loudly at her . She couldn't understand crow speak so she didn't bother with it, it was probably just complaining anyways . "G.o.d, that almost gave this old woman a heart attack . What the f*ck was that?! A gu?! How did a centipede become so d.a.m.n ma.s.sive?! Why in the living h.e.l.ls did they put that thing in here for the a.s.sessment?! Ah . . . I think I'm feeling faint from not breathing, or maybe it was that centipede thing . This old woman isn't that different from normal women, you know? I hate crawling animals too, especially big ones . What the f*ck do they have so many legs for anyways . Ugh . " She hugged herself and s.h.i.+vered as she thought of the many insects and crawling creatures with multiple legs .

She then sighed and shook her head to calm down and lightly slapped her cheeks . "I'm fine with making poisons from those things but I never want to touch a live one . Ugh . Great, now I'm traumatized . I hate bugs in the first place, but they contain the best and most well-made poisons while I'm trying to pursue the study of poisons . Hah . Guess I'll leave the bug catching and killing to someone else now . I don't think I can stand to even see a bug for a while after that . " She patted her cheeks again and looked around to get a baring of where she was now . the crow had stopped, or gave up, squaking at her .  

"It's all trees here, I can't tell where I am . But I should be close to the exit since I ran in that direction . Hopefully I can find a demonic beast to tame that's NOT a bug or something with more thna four legs . " She jumped onto a tree to check for more signs of a demonic beast . She still had time so she would try a more effective way to rack up points .  

Sponsored Content

She jumped for a distance around where she first started before she saw more tracks . 'The amount of demonic beasts is kind of spa.r.s.e . Is it because we're near the tail end of the applicants?' This time, she clearly saw clawed footprints so it definitely was NOT a bug . Glad she didn't have to spend more time searching for a non-disturbing demonic beast, she landed on the ground and followed the tacks . Her watchcrow followed after her, recording everything it saw to report to it's contract owner later . 'The organized sword marks on the ground dissapear after some time but the clawed footprints continue on, with no lightness to suggest an escape and no bloodstains on the ground . It looks like it was able to scare of the applicant that was hunting it . Looks like a big fish . ' She stroked her chin as she looked down and followed the footprints . To be fair, the footprints were not heavy enough to be visible unless someone purposely looked for it . Except the one group of sword marks on the ground suggesting a fight meant there was an encounter there, and in this a.s.sessment, an applicant would only draw their sword becaus eof two resons .

One was to fight off a saboteur or a demonic beast . Since there was only one group of sword marks, it was most likely the latter . Despite the proctor saying it was against the rules, it doesn't mean no one would try to do so, therefore Shen Tianyu didn't consider it an impossible situation like most other people would . There was also the possibility of an applicant being taunted into action by someone else to deliberately cause their failure . Even if the School was hard ot get into, you could always reapply if you fail . And if you were confident enough of your talent, you might attack someone for petty reasons during one of the a.s.sessments . Or if there was some kind of irreconcilable grudge or whatever . There were also people who have determined, by a certain point, that they wouldn't be able to pa.s.s . So, out of pettiness, they might attack other people, since they won't be pa.s.sing anyways . Or, taunt other people to attack them to make them fail out of spite .

Sponsored Content

In addition, Shen Tianyu more or less grew up in some reclusive mountainous region so her tracking skills were better than the average city boy or girl who would go hunt in a carriage rather than run there to practice their skills . The footprints themselves were just slight impressions in the dirt after all .

Before Shen Tianyu saw the demonic beast, she heard it . A defeaning roar came her way before she could even set sights on the creature . Bracing herself, Shen Tianyu kept going forward to finally see a larger than average tiger . It was crouching, ready to pounce, as it glared at her, bearing it's teeth and letting out a continuous low growl . The creature had the orange coat and black stripes of a tiger but there were also streaks of white mixed within . It's orange eyes had an eerie greenish-blue glow around the iris . Other than these physical features and it's larger than average size, it looked just like a tiger .

"Oh . How cute! You're so floofy!" She exclaimed as she clapped her hands upon first sighting the tiger demonic beast . The fur on it was nicely groomed and gave a lsight s.h.i.+ne when the light struck it . Despite living in the forest, it's coat didn't lose out to groomed animals under human care .

The demonic beast made a noise of confucion but didn't let up from it's stance . What's with this human? Don't they always attack upon sighting? 

"Hey, why don't you give me a ride to the exit? They said we need to tame you guys but they didn't specify how . And I don't think they'll let us keep the demonic beasts in this forest as spiritual beasts anyways so completely taming you would just be mentally bad for both of us when we part and a waste of time . As long as you listen to my orders, I think it'll be fine . " She continued talking to the tiger with a finger on her cheek . The tiger didn't budge still . "I think the more common method of taming is fine but I prefer not to use violence on you guys if I don't have to . Demonic beasts are lives too . And animals and animal-based creatures are usually more straightforward and purer than humans . It's just that they've had a hard time so they're more wary . And anyways, you guys were bullied by humans, who broke your agreement first, so this kind of thing is just oppression . That never ends well, even with humans so it's really unreasonable for humans to enforce these kinds of tactics just because you guys aren't humans . Though, of course, I'll fight back if one of you guys come at me first . " The tiger was giving her a more and more confused look . Demonic beasts had intelligence but they wouldn't be able to completely understand human speech until they're a certain level . Before that, they could understand the meaning and emotions behind the words at most . "By the way, I've never seen a demonic beast like you before, though I do know what tigers are and have traversed through the Forest of Death multiple times already . Are you specific to this region?" She asked with her hands behind her back and her body leaning to the side .

The tiger slowly started to ease up it's stance as the human in front of it didn't seem like she would attack it . But still wary, it kept it's distance from the human .  

Shen Tianyu held one of her hands in front of her with her palm up and let the other rest on her knees as she slightly bent down . "Here, kitty kitty . Come over here . " She beckoned with her outstretched hands . 'Tigers are still part of the cat family . And so are lions . Animals with fur alwyas look so soothing . '0 . 5km or 1/3 mileThe traditional preparation of gu poison involved sealing several venomous creatures inside a closed container, where they devoured one another and allegedly concentrated their toxins into a single survivor . a.s.sociated with Southern China .

Sponsored Content