Chapter 459 - 433: Fish and Bird

The upper reaches of the Jing River were not packed with ice floes like its middle section.

Perhaps because the upper reaches were closer to the Jing River’s source, the Bolang Snow Mountain, the water here was livelier and purer. Even in the dead of winter, when the land was covered in a thousand miles of ice and snow, the waves still surged and the current flowed swiftly.

As Song Ciwan walked along the bank, she saw a fish and a bird cursing at each other in the distance.

The Fish Demon had a bizarre appearance. It sported a massive, bright red head and a pair of bulging, transparent eyes that resembled two giant, watery Treasure Pearls. Its back, however, was covered in backward-facing spines, each a full three feet long, giving it a truly menacing look from afar.

Song Ciwan couldn’t identify the Fish Demon’s species. She could only sense from its aura that it was a demon at the Late-stage Spirit Communication.

In terms of cultivation level alone, a Late-stage Spirit Communication Fish Demon was nothing worth mentioning in Song Ciwan’s eyes.

But this Fish Demon had other peculiar traits.

First, despite only being at Late-stage Spirit Communication and not yet having reached the Demon Core Stage, the Fish Demon could actually speak the human tongue.

Of course, whether a member of the Demon Race could speak human language didn’t always depend on their Cultivation. When it came to speech, serendipitous enlightenment often outweighed one’s cultivation level.

Some demons didn’t even need to reach the Spirit Communication Stage. If they possessed a special bloodline, it was highly possible for them to speak human language before even entering Spirit Communication.

Conversely, some demons might not be able to speak human even after reaching the Demon Core Stage.

Naturally, most demons, upon reaching the Demon Core Stage, would undergo Refinement of their hyoid bone, making it no longer difficult to speak. This was a commonly accepted progression of their abilities.

So, Song Ciwan dismissed the matter of its speech, simply attributing it to the Fish Demon being exceptionally clever.

Second, the Fish Demon was at Late-stage Spirit Communication, while the Bird Demon hunting it was actually at the Demon Core Stage.

A Demon Core Stage demon was hunting a Late-stage Spirit Communication demon, yet the latter was still alive and kicking. This showed that the Fish Demon was no ordinary creature.

The Fish Demon yelled, "Beyond Demon Slaughter Pass, a new Elemental Stone Ore has recently been discovered on the Wind Mist Plain! It not only has a large reserve of Upper Grade Primordial Stones, but it’s also accompanied by several types of Ghost Essence Ore veins! You stupid bird, what’s the use of just chasing me?

"Even if you ate a hundred of me, would the benefits compare to obtaining a single Ghost Essence Stone?"

The Fish Demon leaped among the churning whitecaps. The Bird Demon dived, narrowly missing it, and froze upon hearing the Fish Demon’s shout. It shrieked in astonishment, "What did you say? An Elemental Stone Ore, and Ghost Essence Ore too? Impossible! The Wind Mist Plain has been barren for a thousand years. How could mineral veins grow there?

"Where did you get this information? Are you trying to trick me?"

The Bird Demon’s voice was exceptionally shrill, so piercing it could shatter eardrums.

The soundwave struck the Fish Demon, causing two streams of bloody tears to fall from its eyes. The red droplets fell into the rolling waters of the Jing River and were instantly swept away, leaving no trace.

But while the river showed no sign, the Fish Demon was clearly and severely injured by the attack. Its aura weakened rapidly.

The Fish Demon said in a hoarse, furious voice, "The world’s waterways may seem separate on the surface, but they are all interconnected in countless ways. I have my sources in the water. You wretched bird, it’s one thing not to believe me, but to use your Cultivation to bully me like this!

"You’re so vicious! Even if I had more news, I wouldn’t share another shred of it with you."

With that, the Fish Demon twisted its body, dove headfirst, and with a flick of its tail, prepared to plunge into the deep water. It clearly had no intention of tangling with the Bird Demon any longer.

The Bird Demon screeched, "Don’t you dare leave!"

Amidst its cry, the Bird Demon flapped its wings, and a black wind instantly began to roil between them.

From the wind, streams of grayish-black, misty shadows dove into the water. They swam up from the depths and shot toward the Fish Demon in the waves.

The Fish Demon churned the water, driving all the misty shadows away, and grew even angrier. "Wretched bird, I’m leaving whether you like it or not! What can you do about it?"

Saying this, it drove away the last of the shadows, turned, and plunged into the water.

Its dive was so fast it left behind an afterimage.

The misty shadows in the water were too late to stop the Fish Demon, and the long-beaked bird in the sky could no longer hold back.

The Bird Demon shrieked, folded its wings, and then, with its sharp beak pointed downward, it plummeted violently toward the water.

The Bird Demon’s incredible speed was on a completely different level from the Fish Demon’s.

It moved so fast that sparks burst in the air, accompanied by the CRACKLE of miniature, fiery explosions.

For a Bird Demon to dive for a fish—this was its basic instinct!

Amid the shriek of exploding air, in the blink of an eye—no, in less than the blink of an eye.

Like a shooting star in a flash of flint.

The Bird Demon’s body smashed into the water!

Its long, sharp beak pierced the Fish Demon’s body, and a huge cloud of blood instantly erupted in the water.

It all happened in an instant. Just as the Fish Demon was about to be killed...

...the Fish Demon suddenly whipped its tail. FFFT! FFFT! FFFT!

The row of sharp, backward-facing spines on its back, which had been storing power for this very moment, were finally ready.

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!

At that exact moment, all of the Fish Demon’s spines shot out backward.

They flew like arrows from a powerful bow, swift as a meteor chasing the moon.

It was a stark contrast to the Bird Demon’s rapid dive.

The next moment, the Bird Demon let out a bloodcurdling wail.

The Bird Demon’s cry shook the heavens as every one of the Fish Demon’s spines sank into its body.

Unlike the Bird Demon, which had only inflicted a single puncture wound on the fish, the bird itself now suffered countless of them.

Innumerable bloody holes burst open on the Bird Demon’s body. Even though it was at the Demon Core Stage, it didn’t even have time to spit out its Demon Core. Caught in the volley of spines, its eyes rolled back, and its life was extinguished.

Enduring the pain, the Fish Demon forcefully pulled its body off the Bird Demon’s long, sharp beak. It twisted around, opened its gaping maw, and swallowed the dead Bird Demon in a single gulp.

It began with a bird hunting a fish, but in the end, the fish ate the bird.

Witnessing this scene from afar, Song Ciwan felt a primitive and savage cruelty. ’This is the world of the Demon Race!’

The strong devour the weak; it is the law of nature among species.

Therefore, in a way, uniting the Demon Race was truly far more difficult than uniting the Human Race.

After all, one could not expect a tiger to walk alongside a rabbit, nor could one easily make opposing species set aside their differences and coexist peacefully.

Humans were also a race prone to infighting, but when facing external wars, the Human Race was clearly much easier to unite than the Demon Race, with its myriad of species.

This was, without a doubt, an advantage for the Human Race.

From a distance, Song Ciwan watched the Fish Demon swallow the Bird Demon. Then, with a flick of its body, it began to sink back into the water.

Song Ciwan strode forward and raised a palm. An immense suction force emanated from it, pulling the Fish Demon right out of the churning waves.

SLAP!

The Fish Demon landed on the grassy bank, its tail flopping once on the ground.

The Fish Demon was stunned. It let out a terrified shriek as it flailed. "Who are you? Why did you seize me for no reason? Do you know that I am of the Aquatic Race, under the command of the Jing Water Dragon King? How dare you, a member of the Human Race, capture me at will? Are you trying to make an enemy of the Dragon King?"