Chapter Thirty-Four: The Butcher Bird (Second Exhausting Update!)

Ruined walls and crumbling remnants. There was no sign of human construction, yet inexplicably, the phrase flashed through Katherine’s mind. Upon crossing to the opposite bank of the Thanatos River, a sense of desolation and barrenness enveloped her completely. The earth, a dull yellow, was cracked and stretched endlessly into the distance. Jagged rocks and peculiarly shaped hills dotted the landscape, while clusters of unknown weeds grew in haphazard tufts, each isolated from the others. These waist-high grasses were mostly a withered yellow, with the occasional hint of pale red.

Trees appeared only sporadically, separated by dozens of meters, presenting a stark contrast to the rainforest behind her. The trees here were stunted and grotesque, none straight or slender; every one twisted and contorted, their branches bent in every direction. Bare of leaves, their limbs bristled with thorns and spikes. From afar, the trees looked like rows of demonic claws reaching from hell toward the sky.

A wind arose, dry and hot, devoid of any trace of moisture. Fine yellow dust stirred from the ground, threatening to blind anyone who wasn’t careful. Had she not seen it herself, Katherine would never have believed that such a semi-desert existed within the world’s largest and most rainfall-rich rainforest—the Monster Rainforest.

She had suffered an attack by the Djonber before; now, the sight of these bizarre trees made her shudder. Yet, with her master by her side, she gathered her courage and cautiously approached a relatively tall dead tree to examine it closely.

The tree had clearly been dead for a long time. Its trunk, a foot thick, was riddled with deep, crisscrossing cracks, exposing a heartwood now the same deep brown as the bark. Higher up, at less than five meters, the branches began to split, unlike those of rainforest trees. Every branch was studded with sharp thorns, clusters of them spaced evenly every few dozen centimeters. These spikes were long—five or six centimeters at least—and their tips were needle-sharp, easily capable of piercing human skin.

Further up, the dead branches thinned out, replaced by pale brown, twisted tendrils that hung down and trembled in the wind like serpents.

Wait—like serpents?!

Katherine’s hair stood on end, even her shoulder-length bob seemed to bristle. She sprang back in alarm. Those twisted things were not branches at all! Hanging down from the tree were countless slender brown snakes.

The psychological trauma from the Djonber surged back, and Katherine, on the verge of tears, called out, "Master, didn’t you say that Djonber are extremely rare? Why does every damned snake-tree I see seem to have them?!"

Ling Mo covered his face with a sigh, powerless before his disciple’s obliviousness. He rapped Katherine on the head and admonished, "Look carefully! Not every snake you see is a Djonber! Check how these snakes are hanging on the tree!"

Katherine focused, and only then did she see: all those dangling snakes were headless corpses! Their fierce, toothy heads were missing, exposing tender snake flesh and entrails at the neck. Worst of all, the headless bodies had been cruelly impaled onto the tree’s spikes—the upper halves fixed with two or three thorns, then twisted, knotted along the branches, their lower halves left to sway beneath, fluttering in the wind and painting a picture of endless misery and eerie strangeness.

She counted; just this one tree held seven or eight impaled snakes. The higher up, the larger the snakes and the more gruesome their deaths. At the top, small mammals had also been impaled: field mice, rabbits, weasels—and Katherine even spotted the mutilated remains of a young leopard, its neck, spine, and hind legs fixed with spikes. Half its head had been eaten, the other half drooping lifelessly, its face frozen in a peculiar expression, as if from below, it wore a weathered smile.

The uncanny atmosphere was like the scene of some unspeakably evil cult ritual, the monster remains deliberately arranged, conjuring thoughts of a word consigned to the dustbin of history: live sacrifice.

Evil sights always unsettled the soul. Katherine fought the urge to retch, edging closer to Ling Mo and casting a wary glance around. She asked, "Master, are there others who venture this deep into the Monster Rainforest? Why would anyone do something so cruel?"

Ling Mo looked at her, baffled. "Where are these ‘others’?"

"Those things! There!" Katherine pointed vigorously at the tree’s array of animal remains. "This must have been done by a group, right? What’s the point? Are they trying to summon some grand demon?"

"Your imagination is far too rich. You shouldn’t be a wilderness streamer, you should write novels," Ling Mo remarked dryly. "This scene wasn’t made by people, but by a certain bird."

"A bird? Is it just bored out of its mind? Catches prey and doesn’t eat it, just hangs it up for display? And such a disgusting display?"

"This bird has a rather distinctive name—Butcher Bird," Ling Mo gestured. "It’s not large, only a few dozen centimeters in length, wingspan about two meters. But it’s a true raptor: swift, explosively powerful, with a sharp hooked beak that’s deadly. It favors hunting snakes and small mammals, and there are records of it killing rock golems, though I’ve never seen it myself."

"Moreover, it has a nasty habit. Living in dry, hot environments where food is scarce, it often only partially eats its prey, then impales the still-living victims on thorn trees. The prey, unable to escape or die, stays fresh longer."

"Sounds like a frugal housekeeper," Katherine’s mouth twitched. Then she spotted a contradiction, pointing at the snake corpses. "But these are clearly dead! Their heads are gone—that’s not food preservation, is it?"

"Ah, right now it’s a special time for the Butcher Bird—it’s mating season."

"Mating season?!"

"Is that tone really necessary? Monsters have to mate if they’re to reproduce, don’t they?"

"That’s not what I mean," Katherine scratched her head. "I’m not surprised by the mating part, just that you described the bird as so ferocious and then suddenly said ‘it’s mating season’—it feels so out of place. Like... like talking about how terrifying the Demon King is, then suddenly saying he loves dumplings with chive filling..."

"...Let’s not discuss that," Ling Mo said, speechless, before steering the conversation back. "During mating season, female Butcher Birds want to show their strength to males. They hunt fiercely, eat only the best parts of their prey, then hang the remains high and prominently, to attract males for mating. Every year, females fight fiercely for the highest, most visible trees. More females die in these fights than in hunting, and some particularly vicious individuals even hang the remains of slain rivals to attract potential mates."

"That’s... truly savage. But, females attracting males? Are you sure you’re not mistaken, Master?"

"No, it’s correct. Females attract males, because for Butcher Birds, after mating, the female lays eggs, but the male does the incubating. For five months, the male cannot leave the nest, relying on the female to bring food. If he doesn’t choose a strong enough mate, he might not survive at all."

Katherine smacked her lips in amazement. "Wow, male Butcher Birds really have it good: don’t suffer the pain of childbirth, just lie around at home waiting to be fed. I want to be a male Butcher Bird in my next life!"

"Hah, you won’t think so for much longer," Ling Mo mocked. He then carefully inspected the dead tree, scooped up a handful of yellow soil at its base, rubbed it between his fingers, and said, "I’m sure—a female Butcher Bird in heat has been here. She’s clearly not a strong individual; the tree is short and close to the Thanatos River, which is a poor spot for a Butcher Bird. The top prey is only a sand leopard. I can conclude this bird ranks in the lower middle of her group. So, your dinner tonight is obvious—it’s her."

"May I ask, what grade is the Butcher Bird?"

"Level Four—a perfect challenge for an intermediate warrior."

Perfect, my foot!

Katherine suppressed a string of curses and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Master."