Lightning occasionally streaked across the rainy night.

It took the group a considerable amount of time to drag the black bear’s enormous corpse back to the mouth of the cave.

As they dragged the hide along the way, many of the large, colorful bees were disturbed.

Perhaps sensing the gradual loss of the black bear’s body heat, they took flight one by one, disappearing into the curtain of rain.

Some were struck by the rain, falling to the muddy ground to flounder, while others flew off into the distance and vanished.

Wang Hu, who was missing a chunk of flesh from his arm, clutched his wound, periodically swatting away the large, colorful bees that tried to land on him.

Seeing this, the others immediately grew wary, their eyes fixed cautiously on the bees.

Bai Mo watched the growing swarm of large, colorful bees.

"Where are they going?"

Qin Ying, keeping watch nearby, said softly,

"I don’t know. If they can’t find food for themselves, the bees will either have to find a new symbiotic partner or starve to death."

Bai Mo nodded, his gaze then falling upon Lanshan.

The man’s vitality had clearly taken a dive, but he was still grinning from ear to ear.

"Worth it! Totally worth it!"

When Bai Mo saw him struggling to get up, he frowned and barked,

"Lie down and relax your muscles!"

Hearing this, Han Meng quickly helped Lanshan lie back down, half-supporting and half-forcing him.

Then, with nimble hands, he began to pound and massage Lanshan’s muscles.

Lanshan let out a breath.

"Never knew you had a knack for this, kid."

Limpy Ma sidled up with a grin.

"Lanshan, since when did you have a trick like that up your sleeve?"

The move Lanshan had just pulled off had utterly astonished him.

Lanshan grinned as the tension slowly drained from his muscles.

"You wanna know? Stick with me, and you’ll have it too, sooner or later."

Just then, a member of the Mountain-Cleaver Demon Hunting Team spoke up unexpectedly.

"It was a Pill. I saw him take it."

Limpy Ma froze. He shot a sidelong glance at Bai Mo and nodded to himself.

"You’re all a bunch of schemers!" Lanshan shook his head.

"Unlike our friend from Giant Spear. Now there’s an honest man."

The leader of the Giant Spear Demon Hunting Team glanced at him, then turned back to watch Shen Yang dismember the black bear.

In front of the cave, blood flowed freely, only to be washed away by the rain.

Wielding a short blade, Shen Yang skillfully skinned the black bear while Jing Ren and Jing Yi assisted.

Qin Ying sighed as she watched.

"I’m afraid this bearskin won’t be worth anything."

Just as she finished speaking, Shen Yang and the other two had finished skinning the bear. They held up a section of the hide for everyone to see.

Bai Mo glanced over. The bearskin was a complete mess, tattered beyond belief.

From the looks of it, it had been gnawed to pieces by the large, colorful bees.

"What a waste of a good hide!"

Shen Yang boomed, tossing the bearskin aside to begin carving up the meat.

Just then, Qin Ying seemed to remember something. She turned to Bai Mo and asked quietly,

"Shopkeeper Bai, are you feeling any discomfort?"

Bai Mo paused, confused.

"Why?"

No sooner had the word left his mouth than he felt a feverish heat rise within him, bringing with it a sense of agitation and unease.

"This is..."

"A Blood Curse," Qin Ying explained.

Bai Mo had also taken part in the fight when the group surrounded the black bear.

He had blinded the black bear in one eye with the Star-Pointing Seven Hands.

Naturally, he had inherited a portion of the Blood Curse.

She said no more, leaving Bai Mo to quietly experience it for himself.

Bai Mo’s brow furrowed.

"When did this..."

The Blood Curse had set in without a sound, as if it had sprung forth naturally from within his own body.

As he focused on the sensation, Bai Mo found his mind growing hazy, his spiritual awareness feeling as if it were covered in dust.

’This is a terrible feeling!’

’Truly terrifying. If the Blood Curse deepens, a single moment of carelessness could mean a Cultivator’s death, their dao utterly extinguished.’

’With one’s spiritual awareness clouded, Spiritual Qi can go awry, leading to qi deviation and irrational behavior. Such things are commonplace.’

’It feels a bit like the karmic fires of retribution from the legends, but it’s definitely not the same thing.’

Bai Mo looked at Qin Ying. "Is it the same for all of you?"

Qin Ying nodded.

"We’re used to it, though. We don’t feel any discomfort for the time being."

They still had a small supply of Evil Exorcism Pills, but the curse wasn’t yet strong enough for them to waste one.

Bai Mo’s gaze returned to the butchered bear carcass, but in his hand, he produced a pill vial. He tipped out a single Evil Exorcism Pill and swallowed it.

The Pill’s medicinal power began to flow. Bai Mo closed his eyes slightly, guiding the energy through half a cycle of his meridians before the Blood Curse was dispelled.

This action caused the leader of the Giant Spear Demon Hunting Team to give him a sidelong glance.

’Just what you’d expect from a Pill Master. He pops Pills without even blinking.’

Qin Ying looked over as well, looking as if she wanted to say something but held her tongue.

Bai Mo knew what they were thinking and simply explained,

"Pill Masters rely on a clear and lucid mind for Alchemy."

"This feeling of my spiritual awareness being clouded is... quite unsettling."

At his words, the two of them had a moment of understanding.

They didn’t understand the intricacies of being a Pill Master; they just assumed Pill Masters were privileged and fastidious.

The bear’s carcass had been carved up.

The surface layers of meat were also riddled with small holes, revealing a dark red hue.

Meat like this, of course, had to be discarded.

Shen Yang’s hands moved with extreme dexterity. In the middle of his work, he suddenly recalled something.

"Shopkeeper Bai, do you need this Demon Beast’s blood essence for your Alchemy?"

Bai Mo refused outright. "Not from this one."

’The bear’s corpse is a repulsive sight; there’s no telling if its blood essence is tainted.’

’This black bear had turned itself into a living beehive, and the large, colorful bees had ravaged it beyond recognition.’

’It was hard to say whether such a symbiotic relationship was a good thing or a bad thing.’

Shen Yang grunted in acknowledgment and continued his work.

After nearly an hour, he finally finished separating out the parts that looked edible.

Just when Bai Mo thought they were done, the three men began rummaging through the pile of relatively intact meat.

This time, their work was far more meticulous. They periodically used their knives to excise small pieces of flesh.

"What’s this...?" Bai Mo watched, intrigued.

Qin Ying explained, "Demon Beasts are suffused with the Blood Curse. Some parts of their bodies are always affected by it, rendering them inedible."

She thought for a moment, looking troubled.

"No one can really explain the principle behind it. All we know is that eating it has negative effects. Fortunately, those parts of the meat are distinguishable."

Shen Yang tossed a piece of meat aside and called out,

"The Spiritual Qi that refines these areas is disorderly, so the flesh grows irregularly. It’s obvious once you see it."

They were quite eager to share information with Bai Mo, the Pill Master.

After all their careful culling, the remaining edible portion was less than half of what they had started with!

Wang Hu walked over, his arm now bandaged, and scratched his head.

"Just our luck to run into a creature like this. Not much meat to show for it."

The Jing Ren and Jing Yi brothers wrapped the inedible parts in the tattered bearskin, preparing to bury the bundle.

This included a bulging stomach sac and the other internal organs.

"Some of the more frugal Demon Hunting Teams would cut open the stomach sac to have a look."

Wang Hu watched Jing Ren and Jing Yi at their work. It was supposed to be his task, but with his injured arm, he was let off.

"We don’t make a habit of it. For one, it’s a messy job. For another, with Shopkeeper Bai here, we were worried it might be an unpleasant sight."

Bai Mo looked at him thoughtfully.

Wang Hu nodded. "If you’re unlucky enough, you might find the mangled remains of other Cultivators in a Demon Beast’s stomach."

The area at the mouth of the cave was cleared away.

Shen Yang called some others over to help move the good meat into the cave.

The meat would have to be sprinkled with salt and other seasonings to preserve it before it could be stored away.

Lanshan straightened up, saying with some difficulty,

"Hurry up and roast some of that for me."

Shen Yang’s expression changed.

"You want to eat... that stuff?"

Lanshan’s face hardened.

"I’m weak as a kitten right now. If I don’t eat this, are you going to go hunt another Demon Beast for me?"