It was ridiculous to think that only demon beasts were the prey in this hunting ground. Just like they could be hunted by cultivators, these beasts could also make the attempt to hunt cultivators in return, because devouring a cultivator was an extremely great tonic for them, far better than months of passive cultivation growth.
This was rarer in the earlier sections because the low-level demon beasts could barely guarantee their lives against the multitude of hunters who opted to farm them, as they were easy to deal with. In the mid-section, retaliation hunts were less infrequent because beasts at this point were more capable than those who came before, not to mention that cultivators understood the danger, so few were deterred from coming to the hunting ground despite the deaths.
Like this jaguar that had been drawn here by the buck carcass above, but when it laid eyes on Li Ling who foolishly stood in the open with his eyes closed as if he were strolling in a park, it was tempted. Usually, it would not dare to target cultivators easily, especially Li Ling who could not suppress his cultivation at all, showing it to be at the same level as itself, level 6.
But apart from Li Ling glancing over with a blue light in his eyes and briefly pausing, he continued to look away and even returned to the creek, cutting off parts of the carp that had been greedily nibbled away and releasing a fresh flow of gore downstream to attract more targets.
The jaguar was startled, thinking it had been seen initially, but relaxed when Li Ling turned away and took his focus elsewhere. Still, it was a patient hunter and waited, watching Li Ling to see if he was setting a trap, looking for tension in his muscles, but saw none.
The young man was well and truly relaxed, his spear even placed at his side as he sat down near the tree the jaguar was on, resting with his back to it.
At this point, it was tough for the jaguar to resist such easy and tempting prey. A sentient hunter would be suspicious of such casualness and feel something was wrong, but for the jaguar, Li Ling's repeated acts of opening himself up and lowering his guard were akin to a beauty shaking her body in the face of a pent-up man.
If such a fellow could hold back, then even esteemed monks would have to bow.
Like a blur, the jaguar, which had been coiling on the branch with its muscles taut, erupted forward with its full power, not even making a sound as it opened its maw to swallow Li Ling's head in one bite.
Much to the jaguar's shock, Li Ling did not move, only lifting his finger, which had been subtly pointed in its direction all this while, a small football-sized sphere of flame appearing at the top, firing out towards the oncoming jaguar.
BAM!
What was it like to receive a face full of the basic fireball?
If one was in a joking mood, one could even say, with a dragging accent, that it was a spicy meatball.
The jaguar was not in a joking mood.
It yowled in agony as more than half its face was burned off, making it look worse than Two-Face ever could, its eyes reduced into yellowish-black balls while its blackened tongue lolled out from the side of its now fleshless cheeks.
It crashed to the side, missing its pounce on Li Ling, hitting a tree and trying to get up despite the sheer agony, but it had been blinded, deafened and muted all at once, four of its five senses robbed from it forever.
As such, it could not even react when Li Ling walked over and stabbed its torso with his spear, piercing what he estimated to be its heart. Even if it was not, he definitely poked something important because the jaguar creature trembled and then lay down weakly, all energy leaving its body.
｢System Prompt: You have gained 0.6 Slaughter Points.｣
Li Ling wore a bored expression, because this was, in fact, boring. On Earth, even wrestling with the weakest animals was quite dangerous for an average city dweller like Li Ling, but in the cultivation world, the gap was too great.
The Infinite Slaughter System seemed to agree too, because it was clear by the low valuation it gave demon beasts that Li Ling's true prey should be, and always had been, fellow cultivators.
Still, in as much as he was doing things in a carefree manner with some basic efficiency, he was not reckless enough to embark on something that everyone with a sane mind, and even some insane ones, would agree was foolish.
"Tsk, so many corpses." Li Ling shook his head as he glanced at the area.
The half-eaten giant carp, the buck still in the trees, the pile of smaller fish and now the half-burned body of the jaguar. The small creek embankment had become quite crowded in under an hour, making Li Ling once again wish for a storage treasure.
He hesitated and then sighed, only keeping one or two of the fish before throwing everything to flow down the river. If someone picked up a bargain, good for them, they should use it to cultivate well so Li Ling could harvest more Slaughter Points in the eventual situation he killed them.
As it was right now, he glanced at the sun, which was not even at the midpoint of the sky, and smiled, knowing he had a full, long day ahead of him. As such, he activated his upgraded Qi Seeking Technique and did not spot any nearby energy signatures within 50 meters, but was not worried.
He tied the fish to his side and moved through the forest with the Qi Seeking Technique continually active, scanning left and right for prey. This proved to be almost a thousand times more efficient compared to before, as he quickly spotted not only beasts, but even the harder-to-spot critters that had modest power.
By the time it hit evening, Li Ling was almost reluctant to make camp rather than continue to hunt, for his harvest had been too lucrative.
19 Slaughter Points!