I Start with a Mysterious Island-Chapter 37: The Unsolved Puzzle

Seeing the Mutant Beast he was about to kill trying to escape, Lin Li immediately grew desperate.

He had searched for over half an hour with nothing to show for it. He’d finally found a Mutant Beast that practically served itself up on a platter, spent a good deal of Spiritual Energy and stamina, and was on the verge of killing it. If it managed to slip away, he’d be frustrated for quite some time.

’I absolutely can’t let it escape!’ Lin Li roared internally, then immediately gave chase to the fleeing Black Snake Beast.

Lin Li had opened several gashes on the Black Snake Beast, and blood gushing from the wounds left a bright red trail wherever it slithered.

This conspicuous trail allowed Lin Li to track its escape route with perfect accuracy.

...

The sun was suddenly obscured by dark clouds drifting in from the distance, granting the scorched earth a moment’s respite.

"CHIRP CHIRP..."

A small sparrow, its belly full, flapped its wings, took off from a patch of grass and headed for home.

"HISS..."

A shrill roar suddenly echoed across the quiet wilderness, startling the little sparrow, its belly round and full as it headed home, so badly it nearly tumbled from the sky.

"CHIRP CHIRP...?"

The startled little sparrow frantically flapped its wings, rapidly gaining altitude. It then circled a few times in the sky, searching for the source of the shrill roar that had given it such a fright.

Soon, the little sparrow spotted the source of the noise.

It saw a human standing atop the massive body of a Black Snake Beast, clutching a weapon that pulsed with a faint, golden Spiritual Light.

At that moment, the glowing weapon was already buried deep in the Black Snake Beast’s head.

’Chirp chirp... Better get out of here. Humans are terrifying.’

The little sparrow, however, remembered its parents’ teachings: stay away from humans, especially those who are hunting. If you see one, get as far away as possible. Don’t let curiosity tempt you into getting a closer look.

Hearing the crisp birdsong from behind, Lin Li subconsciously turned his head toward the sound, only to see a chubby little sparrow flying away from him.

He looked away and refocused on the Black Snake Beast beneath his feet.

Although it had fled for its life, its strength had gradually drained away with the blood that gushed from its wounds.

In the end, the ferocious Black Snake Beast couldn’t escape its fate. Lin Li had caught up and run it through the head with his sword.

Although the Black Snake Beast was dead, its body continued to twitch restlessly. ’Must be a reflex,’ he thought. It would take a little while longer for it to go still.

After a minute or so, the Black Snake Beast’s corpse finally stopped moving.

"SQUELCH."

Lin Li put his weight into it, yanking the Spiritual Longsword from the Black Snake Beast’s head.

As the Spiritual Longsword came free, a grotesque mixture of red and white gushed from the wound, spilling all over the ground.

"After all that work, I finally got one," Lin Li muttered. He then crouched and placed a hand on the Black Snake Beast’s body.

With a mere thought, the corpse of the high-level Tier One Black Snake Beast vanished without a trace.

...

On the Mysterious Small Island, the bloody corpse of a Mutant Beast materialized out of thin air before the little tree at the island’s center.

Unlike previous times, the Magical Little Tree seemed famished. The moment the Black Snake Beast’s corpse appeared, a white mist began to drift up from its body.

In the span of a few breaths, the massive corpse of the Black Snake Beast vanished completely, leaving not even a speck behind.

The white mist gathered in mid-air, coalescing into a round, white orb.

This orb of white mist was twice the size of the one formed from a rabbit beast’s corpse.

Then, just like before, the white orb flew toward the Magical Little Tree, which bore a small, green fruit, and was instantly absorbed.

After absorbing the white orb, the tiny green fruit on the Magical Little Tree—barely larger than a grain of rice—seemed to have grown a little.

...

Today’s goal was to hunt five Mutant Beasts.

Having spent forty to fifty minutes hunting just one Mutant Beast, Lin Li was determined to complete his daily goal. After sending the Black Snake Beast’s corpse to the Mysterious Small Island, he immediately set off in search of his next target.

To find another beast quickly, Lin Li expanded his search area, venturing deeper into the wilderness.

As it turned out, the deeper one went into the wilderness, the greater the chances of encountering a Mutant Beast.

Sure enough, after heading deeper into the wilderness for about ten minutes and covering over five hundred meters, Lin Li came across his second target of the day. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

It was a Luhua Chicken Beast, standing 1.2 meters tall with a large, bright-red comb.

He wasn’t sure about other cities, but in the wilderness outside Rongcheng, Luhua Chicken Beasts like this one were quite common.

Legend had it that sixty or seventy years ago, there was an incident at a Luhua chicken farm on the outskirts of the city. A huge number of Luhua chickens escaped and scattered into the wilderness.

As time passed, these escaped Luhua chickens gradually became feral. Later, a large number of their offspring Awakened their Spirituality and became Mutant Beasts.

Strangely, though, the Luhua chickens on the farm had been raised for many years, spanning several generations, yet not a single one had ever Awakened its Spirituality to become a Mutant Beast.

And yet, the offspring of the chickens that escaped and became feral Awakened their Spirituality with surprising ease, turning into Mutant Beasts.

Why these Luhua chickens transformed into Mutant Beasts so easily remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

...

"CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK..."

Upon seeing Lin Li, the 1.2-meter-tall Luhua Chicken Beast let out a sharp crow.

Although the Luhua Chicken Beast was not a carnivorous Mutant Beast, it was highly aggressive.

It was said that some foreign cockfighting enthusiasts would take international flights to Rongcheng every year.

They would pay local Exotic Beast Hunters to capture some Luhua Chicken Beasts alive in the wilderness, then take the captured beasts back to their countries to participate in cockfighting competitions.

As for the results, rumor had it they were quite impressive; Rongcheng’s Luhua Chicken Beasts had won the championship title in several competitions.

...