Shen bid farewell to his friends before leaving the village. The others were still doing the training when he left the village. "To the east… To the east…" He muttered in a low voice while walking toward the east. On the way there, he encountered a few chickens on the way. After a week of battling against the chicken, Shen was familiar with the chicken fight. He easily killed them after reading their attacks.

"Keh, you are no longer a threat to me." Shen let out a chuckle as he put the tenth chicken into his inventory. After an hour of leaving his village, Shen finally entered the new area he was talking about. He checked the minimap, and he was sure this was where he had died before. To be more exact, it was twenty meters ahead of him.

Shen stopped and observed the area in front of him. The tall tree with dense red leaves stood next to each other, coloring the new area in red. "That\'s Red Willow trees, right?" Shen recalled the picture Brother Jiang showed him about the Red Willow Tree.

He did not rush there and cut the trees down. He stood on his original spot and observed the area ahead of him, searching for monsters in that new area. Shen examined each tree to make sure there was no monster there, and indeed, he could not find any monster. "Is it camouflage like a chameleon, or are the monsters truly invisible?"

Shen kept scanning the area for another ten minutes, and he could not find anything. "I think the monster will not attack me unless I enter their territory." Taking a deep breath, he approached one of the red willow trees. He walked slowly, making less noise not to alert the monster.

Nothing happened until he arrived in front of the enemy. Of course, he followed his Master\'s advice, to focus on his hearing instead of his sight. The fact that he could not see any monsters around only made him even more nervous. He then inspected the tree in front of him.

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[Red Willow Tree]

Type: Materials

Descriptions: (omitted)

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Shen did not bother to read the description as it was freaking long. He just wanted to make sure that the tree in front of him was Red Willow. Confirming his guess, Shen was about to take out his ax and chopped the tree until he heard a slight noise above him. He subconsciously looked up as his heartbeat was rising.

However, Shen did not see anything above him. "Huh!? I am sure I heard something from above…." He muttered in a low voice. His eyes darted from one branch to another branch, but he could not find anything. "Is it wind?" The noise was something like a leaf brushed off by something.

After a minute of observation, Shen could not find anything, and he thought it was just his paranoid thoughts. He took out the ax from the inventory. When he equipped the ax, he was surprised to see an \'x\' mark on the tree. "This is the mark Brother Jiang talked about."

Brother Jiang told Shen that he could see this kind of mark as long as he used the ax made by him. He just needed to follow this mark to get a good chop on the tree. He raised the ax and was about to swing the ax until he heard noise from above. Shen kicked the ground and leaped backward.

Swoosh! Bump!

Something big hit the ground, and Shen finally got a clear look at what kind of monster lived around here. It was a snake, around six meters long and two times bigger than his thigh. The snake was quick with its movement. After failing to hit the attack, the snake immediately coiled toward the Red Willow and hissed at him.

At the same time, he switched off his ax to Wrath Club. He held the club with his right and observed the snake cautiously. \'Let\'s take it easy and let the snake take the initiative to attack me instead. I shall not fight it until I learn how this snake fights.\'

After a long hissing, the snake spat out a thick green liquid from its mouth. With Shen\'s quick reaction, he took a side step and dodged the green liquid. The green liquid fell on the ground and let out a "Pssh" noise as it burned the dried leaves and eroded the soil.

Shen\'s heart skipped a beat when he saw this. If that thing landed on him, not only would he be poisoned, but he would take a lot of damage for sure. \'I don\'t have the antidote, and nor do I have any information about this snake. It\'s too dangerous for me to fight the snake. Should I gather information as much as possible and retreat?\'

Shen did not want to lose his experiences and considered retreating instead of fighting the maroon snake. As he was in a dilemma whether to fight or not, he noticed that the maroon snake had disappeared from the tree. \'Shit! It has an invisibility skill.\' He cursed inwardly while observing the Red Willow Tree in front of him.

\'I don\'t see any movement, meaning the snake is still on the same tree.\' Shen thought to himself as he tried to find the snake on the tree. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not find the snake. \'The snake also has great patience. There\'s no noise, which means the snake does not move.\'

\'If the snake does not move, then it should be there. Should I attack that spot?\' Shen\'s eyes locked at the spot where he saw the snake. He had the idea, but Shen was too scared to try it. \'What if the maroon snake could move without making noise?\'

Shen did not move from his spot for ten minutes as his body was tensed up all the time. \'Ah, I should try that.\' He suddenly had an idea. With his eyes locked at the spot, he cast the skill, [Frozen Spear].. He hoped his magic would do the wonder against a troublesome opponent like this snake.