Hunting the Purple Flame Sable

Chapter 43 Hunting the Purple Flame Sable

Red pine is a tall and robust pine tree, generally exceeding ten zhang in height.

Once these trees form a forest, they attract and breed several special pine caterpillars, and it is difficult for other trees of the same height to thrive in the area where they grow.

The red pine forest where Zhou Chun and his group are now is filled with red pine trees that are over ten feet tall, many of which are over a thousand years old.

The ground of the pine forest was covered with a thick layer of pine needles, and various thorny shrubs, brambles, and weeds grew there, making it very inconvenient to walk.

Pine caterpillars, often as long as a finger, would frequently fall from the trees.

In a place like this, if you're not brave enough, you really can't stay there.

At this moment, Zhou Chun and his companion put on straw hats to prevent pine caterpillars from falling on them, and had Zhou Zhengyong's red-tailed monkey clear the way ahead, quickly penetrating more than ten miles into the pine forest.

"The Purple Flame Sable likes to prey on all kinds of rodents. This red pine forest is so big, there must be a lot of squirrels and mountain rats in it, and there may even be rodent monsters such as the Golden Tooth Rat and the Flame Rat."

"If we can manage to catch one, we can use it as bait to lure out the Purple Flame Sable."

Under a red pine tree, Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong squatted down and looked at the dark brown mink droppings left on the ground. Zhou Zhengyong whispered his plan.

The Purple Flame Sable is a lone wolf, and its lair is extremely well hidden. Finding its lair in this vast pine forest within three days would require extraordinary luck.

Therefore, the method of "luring the snake out of its hole" seems to be the most effective.

"Brother Yong, your method is not impossible, but those rat-like monsters are just as timid and cautious. It will be quite difficult to capture them alive, especially since we don't have much time."

Zhou Chun didn't doubt whether Zhou Zhengyong's method would work, but she did point out the difficulties involved.

"I was prepared for this. I specifically asked the elders in my family for some food that rodent monsters like to eat, and I also asked for some sleeping potions."

At this point, Zhou Zhengyong looked at Zhou Chun and said, "Let's split up and each take some food to search for traces of those rat demons."

"Okay, let's try it this way first."

Zhou Chun nodded, agreeing with his idea.

Immediately, Zhou Chun took some dried fruit, food, and sleeping pills from Zhou Zhengyong, and the two of them split up to search for traces of the rodent monsters in the pine forest.

Both of them were skilled in beast taming, and their ability to find demonic beasts was even stronger than that of experienced rogue cultivators.

From feces and claw marks to the types of nearby plants and temperature variations such as humidity, they can determine whether there are traces of certain types of monsters in the vicinity.

Take the "Golden Tooth Rat" as an example. This squirrel-like rodent monster has two golden incisors that can even bite through steel.

Therefore, they often need to use hard stones to sharpen their teeth and like to live in places with a lot of hard rocks.

Zhou Chun moved through the pine forest, carefully observing the area he passed through with his divine sense and naked eyes, searching for traces of rodent monsters from the smallest details.

After half a day, he found three places where there might be dens of rodent monsters, and chose the one he thought had the highest probability to lie in wait.

He scattered some dried meat of demonic beasts and dried fruit containing a weak spiritual power in a certain place in the pine forest, and hid a kind of sleeping potion that was similar in shape to the dried fruit in it. Then he sprinkled some collected beast droppings and ant repellent powder nearby.

In this way, even if ordinary rodents and ants smell the food, they dare not come forward to eat it.

After doing all this, Zhou Chun hid in the distance and silently circulated the "Forest Hidden Cicada Breathing Technique" to conceal his aura.

He has been practicing both secret arts for almost a year now. Although he has not yet mastered both arts to the point of being able to use them at will, he can use them by preparing in advance.

At this moment, Zhou Chun lay prone among the bushes and weeds, his body blending perfectly with the color of the surrounding bushes and weeds, and his own scent was also masked by the fragrance of the grass and trees under the effect of the secret technique.

Even if someone were to pass by now, it would be extremely difficult for them to spot Zhou Chun in the bushes with their naked eyes and sense of smell.

To avoid alerting any potential rodent-like monsters, he deliberately scattered some fresh, highly pungent animal droppings nearby, ensuring that his own odor wouldn't spoil the situation.

Of course, the downside of this is that even if he wears a homemade mask, he still has to endure the stench, which is quite unpleasant.

As time passed, after nearly an hour of waiting, Zhou Chun finally saw a large red-haired rat with bright red fur appear in his line of sight.

The large rat was as big as an adult's calf, and it was unaffected by the smell of the wild animal droppings that Zhou Chun had scattered nearby.

After looking around with its eyes and sniffing the air, it crawled over to the dried meat and dried fruit and happily began to eat the delicious food.

After devouring all the food Zhou Chun had spilled, the giant rat turned around and prepared to return to its nest by the same route.

But it hadn't gone far when it felt dizzy and its body began to sway uncontrollably.

Not long after, the little thing couldn't withstand the effects of the drug and fell into a coma.

Only then did Zhou Chun leave his hiding place and pick up the unconscious rat.

He lifted the large rat by the scruff of its neck, examined it closely, and muttered to himself, "Luckily, it's just a low-grade first-tier demonic beast, the Flame Rat. If its cultivation had reached the mid-grade first-tier, these few [Beast-Bewitching Pills] probably wouldn't have been enough to subdue it!"

Then he took the fire rat and went to find Zhou Zhengyong.

Compared to Zhou Chun, Zhou Zhengyong was much less lucky, and he waited for a long time without reaping any rewards.

When he saw Zhou Chun carrying the unconscious Flame Rat over, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thirteenth brother, it's good that you've gained something. You've really helped your brother a lot this time!!"

He expressed his gratitude and immediately took the unconscious fire rat from Zhou Chun's hands, beginning to treat it.

Untamed fire rats require special treatment to coax purple flame sables out to hunt within a fixed area.

This was not difficult for Zhou Zhengyong and Zhou Chun to do.

Beast-taming families like the Zhou family have long since researched and developed many methods for capturing various kinds of monsters alive.

At this point, Zhou Zhengyong used drugs and silver needles to stimulate and damage the Flame Rat's brain, causing it to go crazy. At the same time, he piled up some collected Purple Flame Sable feces around it to prevent it from escaping the fixed area.

Afterwards, to prevent the Purple Flame Sable from discovering the two of them, Zhou Zhengyong, who did not know the secret technique of concealing his breath, left the scene far away. He only handed over the spirit beast bag containing his Red-tailed Monkey spirit pet to Zhou Chun, who then lay in ambush nearby to wait for the Purple Flame Sable to come.

Squeak squeak squeak!!

The fire rat, its brain seemingly malfunctioning, was frantically running and jumping around in a forest clearing, constantly emitting loud screams.

Its eyes had completely lost their spirit, only showing a kind of madness; its bloodshot, red eyes looked quite frightening.

Some of the rat-catching beasts in the pine forest came over to take a look after hearing the sound, but when they saw that the owner of the shout was a fire rat, they were so frightened that they quickly ran away.

Ordinary rats are indeed food for these beasts, but fire rats can use magic.

Even a small, ordinary fireball is enough to burn a tiger to death.

Time passed slowly, and the Fire Rat gradually exhausted its stamina with each scream, its voice becoming so hoarse that it could no longer make a loud sound.

The Purple Flame Sable, however, never appeared.

This made Zhou Chun, who was secretly waiting, somewhat anxious.

They were lucky to catch this one fire rat; catching another to use as bait would be extremely difficult.

Despite his anxiety, Zhou Chun dared not act rashly.

The Purple Flame Sable was extremely vigilant and cautious, and was probably observing from somewhere in the shadows.

If he were to make a rash move and startle it, even if he managed to catch another fire rat as bait, he wouldn't be able to lure it into a trap again in the short term.

As time went by, the fire rats on the ground could no longer even make a sound, as if they had died completely.

It was late at night, and the starlight and moonlight were mostly obscured by the tree canopy, with only a few stars scattered in the forest, allowing Zhou Chun to see just the general outline of the fire rat.

He dared not use his divine sense to monitor, because although divine sense is invisible and intangible, many demonic beasts can sense it and will know that they are being spied on.

Therefore, unless the Purple Flame Sable appears and its location needs to be locked with divine sense, Zhou Chun would absolutely not dare to release his divine sense.

Just when Zhou Chun's eyes were already sore and she felt she could hardly hold on any longer, she finally noticed something unusual in her vision.

In a flash, a huge black shadow, about the size of a yellow dog, appeared beside the fire rat, snatched it up in its mouth, and darted into the depths of the forest at an incredible speed.

This scene immediately jolted Zhou Chun awake, and he immediately released his divine sense to lock onto the figure.

It really is a Purple Flame Sable!

The results of the divine sense scan relieved Zhou Chun, and he hurriedly chased after the figure.

At the same time, a long howl came from his mouth, echoing Zhou Zhengyong, who was waiting in the distance, rushing to help.

However, the Purple Flame Sable is extremely fast in the mountains and forests. Even with the "Wind Control Technique" buff, Zhou Chun could not outrun it.

Therefore, after sending the signal, he released Zhou Zhengyong's red-tailed monkey, letting this mischievous monkey, which was also very agile in the mountains and forests, chase after the purple flame sable, while simultaneously using his flying magic weapon to give chase.

(End of this chapter)