Hidden genius: Black belly snake

The two bears and the half-dead lava salamander looked around searching for the snake who had surfaced suddenly and now had disappeared at almost the same speed.

The three beasts became very vigilant not giving Tang Yue another chance to sneak attack.

Before they could sniff her out completely, she summoned Little Plum who started spewing out fireballs.

Tang Yue at the same time morphed into her human figure and slashed down at the bears, her soul sword dripping in her venom.

Her attacks landed on both the bears, however, not even one of them was injured as a result.

One of the bears waved its hand and pushed her back effortlessly, making Tang Yue fall down with a thud several feet away.

The lava salamander meanwhile attacked the other bear, tearing its thick thighs with its sharp teeth.

Little Plum added fire to this medley by casting Dragon dance and the patch of grassy they were brawling on lit up brightly.

The bear growled angrily and tried to swat away Little Plum when a snake appeared once again to bite it down on its thigh.

Ding. 1 Crimson Bear killed

Ding. 10000 Experience Points have been rewarded.

Tang Yue did not waste any time and immediately turned around to spray her venom at the lava salamander which had its mouth open locked onto the second bear's thigh.

The venom sprayed perfectly on both the beasts, entering their system easily and took them both down within the next second.

Ding. 1 Crimson Bear killed

Ding. 10000 Experience Points have been rewarded.

Ding. 1 Lava Salamander killed

Ding. 10000 Experience Points have been rewarded.

"Huff. Huff." Tang Yue panted and activated her Soul Parasite skill to absorb the souls from the dead beasts. 

"Good job, Little Plum." She didn't forget to give the elemental a thumbs up which made it buzz happily. 

The fragment of heavenly flame at its center was now only a sliver with the elemental having almost digested it fully.

Tang Yue wondered if the little guy was going to evolve once again when the flame gets completely digested.

But now was not the time to think about that and she quickly threw all the beast meat into her spatial ring.

"Three bears, two salamanders and five eagles! What a haul!" 

"It would have been better if these were two Emperor beasts fighting with each other, but I guess I will take what I get."

She dunked a couple of potions and licked her lips before waving at the other spirit snakes to once again start moving.

They needed to cover the distance and get to the center of the island to Medusa's palace while the commotion was still at its high point.

Tang Yue chomped at the crisply burnt eagle meat to recover her stamina and strength and continued slithering forward, searching for other potential jackpots on her way.

Except for the hilly region near the eastern part, the rest of the island was pretty much covered by thick dense forests.

As the group slithered through the cluster of trees, they slowly and steadily moved farther and farther away from the salamander territory.

Several flying-type beasts growled as they whooshed past them in the sky flying towards the smoke fumes from the volcanic eruption.

Tang Yue had hoped for a few more freebies but unfortunately, she didn't come across any fights as they were moving away from the battle zone.

"Jin Wei, do you think this is the crimson bear territory? Look at these huge footprints!"

"Ummm… yes, it does look like that, your highness." The elder nodded.

If possible Tang Yue wanted to enslave a bear and keep it as her muscle since the beast had really high strength and attack power which she was severely lacking at the moment.

A few more minutes later, the group had smoothly slithered through the forests, almost covering half of it, when suddenly they came across a big clearing.

This was clearly not a natural clearing as the trees which had originally covered every inch of the ground had been demolished, broken apart and scattered here and there.

Hmmm… Tang Yue paused, making the snakes slithering behind her pause as well.

She gazed at the tracks on the worn out forest grounds and found something extremely unusual and peculiar.

Even though there were dozens of signs of battle in the area, there was not even a single corpse in the vicinity.

And a little to the right, there was a huge clearing and tracks on the ground as if someone had dragged something on the ground.

Though it was a slight detour, curiosity and greed got the better of Tang Yue and she had a feeling she might find something interesting if she followed the trail.

The group, as a result, changed their direction on her whim and started heading in that direction.

The tracks extended for quite a bit of distance until they finally came to a stop beside a small cave like protrusion.

Tang Yue could immediately smell the thick stench of blood and dead flesh nearby, not to mention the several bones tossed around here and there.

From the looks of it, a single beast or several beasts had dragged all the corpses from the battle on the clearing and dragged them all the way here, which should be their lair.

She stopped her movements and used her senses to see if any beasts were present in the vicinity.

However, this part of the forest was eerily quiet, except for the rustling of the leaves and whistling of the wind.

She decided to cast 'One with the Earth' and observe her surroundings just to be safe.

But even that was not quite useful in case there was an Emperor beast hidden inside the cave as these beasts at least possessed the strength of Demi-Gods and perhaps Deities and they were quite capable of hiding their aura.

"Hmmm… Should I risk it or not?" 

Tang Yue pondered, but she was already here and if there was a beast inside, it probably sensed her by now, so she decided to take a peek before leaving.

What can one harmless peek possibly do?