Chapter 157: Cruel

Looking toward the river from where Catherine stood, it was clearly visible that in the crystal-clear waters of the Thanatos River, a brownish-yellow leopard was swimming leisurely. Its coat was a tawny base color, densely speckled with pale black spots, making it look indistinguishable from an ordinary leopard. There was a groove on each side of its cheeks, indicating that this was a male leopard. A tuft of outward-flaring fur grew over each groove, puffing in and out with its breathing, making its expression look as though it were smiling, instantly winning favor and giving the impression that the leopard had a gentle temperament.

However, Catherine, who frequently dealt with felines, knew that a leopard's "smile" actually signified extreme hunger. The more pronounced the cheek grooves were—resembling dimples—the longer the leopard had been hungry! In the wilderness, if you ever saw a leopard smiling at you like a delicate beauty gently furrowing her brows, you had better be careful, for it meant it had already marked you as its prey!

Yet at this moment, the leopard was smiling rather strangely; it was actually smiling toward the riverbed of the Thanatos River. Could it be that there was still prey hiding down in the river?

Ling Mo glanced casually at the leopard, took a gentle step to shield Catherine and Vayne behind him, and explained, "I didn't expect us to encounter the first exotic creature of the Magical Beast Rainforest so soon. The leopard before us is a close relative of the Level 6 magical beast, the Blink Leopard, and its name is the Winged Leopard."

Vayne rolled her eyes and retorted, "Master, aren't you trying to fool us again? Winged Leopards possess a pair of massive wings with a wingspan of over four meters, and their flight speed in the air is roughly comparable to an albatross. Because their wings are difficult to maintain, they usually detest entering the water, yet the one right in front of us is swimming, and its wings are nowhere to be seen!"

Ling Mo smiled, pointed at the Winged Leopard before them, and said, "Observe the leopard's flanks carefully. Do you see those two bumps, each about the size of three palms? Those are the wings of the Winged Leopard."

Vayne and Catherine widened their eyes, and it took them a long time to finally make out that, hidden beneath the camouflage of the leopard's spotted fur, there was indeed a pair of 'wings' bearing the exact same camouflage pattern! These wings pressed flat against its skin. Whenever the Winged Leopard in the river paddled its limbs to accelerate its swim, those small 'wings' would rapidly open and close, helping the creature quickly adjust its direction underwater.

Catherine muttered, "Instead of calling these two things wings, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call them fins? Both in size and function, they feel just like fish fins!"

"You've actually hit the nail on the head. The wings of the Winged Leopards living along the Thanatos River have indeed acquired the functions of fish fins!" Ling Mo nodded in praise. "Whenever the rainy season arrives in the rainforest, every river swells, and the banks of the Thanatos River in particular are low-lying. Before the rainy season is even halfway through, this area turns into a vast expanse of water. Although Winged Leopards have wings, their bones are solid after all, making them much heavier than birds. They cannot stay airborne for long periods and are forced to forage in the water, thus completing this adaptive evolution."

Vayne's expression turned somewhat peculiar. She gestured and asked, "Master, do you mean to say that the staple food of this kind of leopard is fish?"

"Not quite," Ling Mo denied Vayne's guess. "Despite undergoing adaptive evolution for an aquatic lifestyle, its swimming speed underwater is still far inferior to that of fish, and the capture success rate is too low. Therefore, its staple food is actually the river's turtles and crocodiles."

"Turtles? Crocodiles?!"

Catherine could never have imagined that a leopard—which in her impression was always famous for its running speed and seemed to spend its days chasing prey like antelopes and deer—would switch professions to eating turtles! (This is not fabricated by the author; the staple diet of leopards in the lower reaches of rainforest rivers truly consists of sea turtles and crocodiles.)

"B-But... I'm not surprised that it can catch a turtle, but how does it eat it? Are its claws harder than a turtle's shell?" Catherine asked curiously.

Ling Mo motioned for her to be quiet for a moment, and leading her and Vayne, he cautiously approached the bank of the Thanatos River. The leopard swimming on the river surface cast a cold glance at them, lifting its neck slightly as a warning, but perhaps lacking experience in battling humans, it made no overly aggressive moves. The three of them crept a few steps closer and could finally see clearly: directly beneath the swimming leopard was a giant turtle resting peacefully!

This turtle was a full meter across! Through the clear river water, one could distinctly see the mysterious patterns on its shell. Its entire body was a deep green color. Although resting on a rock at the riverbed, its limbs and head were half-retracted and exposed, and its flipper-like forelimbs were already angled so that at the slightest disturbance, they would propel it forward with a powerful stroke! Do not underestimate a turtle's slow movements on land; once in the water, its explosive power is in no way inferior to that of the vast majority of fish!

The turtle actually knew the Winged Leopard was hovering above it, but it was completely unfazed. The distance between them was currently too great, and it had absolute confidence in its ability to escape the moment the leopard plunged into the water! However, the sudden appearance of Ling Mo and his companions on the bank attracted its attention. Having never seen such creatures before, it couldn't help staring for a couple of extra seconds, twisting its turtle head just a fraction too far. By the time it snapped back to its senses, it suddenly discovered that the Winged Leopard had vanished from its field of vision!

It's over!

Panic gripped its heart. Its two hind legs pushed off the rock beneath it with violent force, while both forelimbs swept backward with all their might. As its massive body shot forward like a lightning bolt, its tail whipped rapidly back and forth like the tail of a hyperactive puppy, parting the waves and making its initial dash leave afterimages!

Yet it was still too late! The moment the turtle twisted its neck, the Winged Leopard had already launched its attack. Its four limbs, along with the two 'fins' on its flanks, flared open and beat rapidly. Tracing a graceful trajectory from the water's surface to the riverbed, its sharp-toothed jaws clamped down viciously onto the turtle shell! The immense forward momentum of the turtle dragged the leopard forward with a jerk, but the turtle ultimately failed to break free from those sharp teeth. Realizing escape was impossible at that moment, the turtle abandoned further struggle and pulled its head, tail, and all four limbs entirely into its shell, sealing the openings with several bony plates, living up to its reputation as a true 'turtle hiding in its shell.'

The Winged Leopard kicked off the riverbed with its hind legs, surging rapidly to the water's surface, and scrambled onto the bank after a few strokes. Soon, Catherine learned how the leopard intended to eat the turtle. It shook its fur casually on the bank, sending water droplets flying in every direction as its entire body dried off in under two seconds. Then, its comical wing-like fins on its flanks suddenly expanded into two giant wings with a wingspan of a full five meters! With a powerful push from all four paws, the Winged Leopard shot straight up into the sky, flying up to an altitude of a thousand meters in the blink of an eye with the giant turtle clamped in its jaws!

It circled in the air a few times, secured the right angle, and dove downward like a sharp sword. Reaching the predetermined position, it gently loosened its jaws, and the massive turtle hurtled like a cannonball, tracing a graceful arc toward a protruding rock on the cliff face!

"T-This is the technique of egrets preying on freshwater mussels!" Catherine regretfully smacked her own forehead, cursing her own stupidity for having an IQ lower than a leopard's! When she was young, she had learned the story of the snipe and the clam grappling while the fisherman profits, and she had deeply believed it, captivated by the ancient wisdom. After growing up and entering the profession of a wilderness streamer, she realized the ancients were full of bullshit—when egrets ate shelled creatures, they picked them up, flew hundreds of meters high, dropped them onto a stony beach to smash them to pieces, and then leisurely pecked at the succulent soft flesh inside!

An egret's brain was only the size of a melon seed, and if a brain that foolish could think of such a method, there was no reason this Winged Leopard couldn't. Moreover, viewed through Catherine's heavily enhanced titanium-alloy-dog-like vision, the rock the turtle was about to strike was dark brown, radiating the warm glow unique to extremely hard crystalline materials. The entire rock was stained with blood, with various shell fragments scattered all around, showing at a glance how many armored creatures had been dashed to their deaths here!

CLANG!!!

The edge of the turtle shell slammed against the brown crystal, producing a dull, thunderous roar resembling a heavy metal hammer striking a cast-iron billet. The turtle shell bounced several meters high into the air, landed on the ground, rolled a few times, and lay completely still.

The Winged Leopard flapped its wings and dropped with a soft flutter beside the overturned shell. Prodding it with a claw, it found that the giant turtle's six limbs remained securely tucked inside without the slightest sign of exposure, and not a single scratch could be found on the seamless shell, as if the fierce impact had caused no harm whatsoever.

Seeing this, the Winged Leopard was clearly displeased. The corners of its mouth parted once again, and two shallow dimples reappeared on its cheeks. Extending its claws, it popped out the razor-sharp nails from its thick paw pads and tapped the turtle shell all over with a rapid *tap-tap-tap*, pressing one ear close to listen to the sound of each strike. The posture bore a striking resemblance to elderly shoppers picking out watermelons at a vegetable market.

"Clink-clink!"

Just as the Winged Leopard had tapped the entire turtle shell once, wore a distinct expression of disappointment on its leopard face, and was about to give up, suddenly! Its nail struck the abdominal shell near the tail of the giant turtle, and the sound produced there was crisp, distinctly different from all the other areas! This indicated that the shell here was very likely extremely thin!

It instantly grew excited! Like a large cat, it emitted a joyful whimper from the back of its throat, picked up the giant turtle, and once again soared into the sky. Adjusting its angle mid-air, it hurled the turtle shell ruthlessly back toward that block of brown crystal! Captured by the ultra-high-definition magic eye spirit's camera lens, everyone clearly saw that the leopard's 'frisbee' throwing technique was exceptionally superb, sending the tail section of the turtle's plastron to crash straight into the brown rock!

Clang!

This impact sound was almost identical to the first. However, if one's ears were sharp enough, or if one had cast the curse-type spell 'Deepened Pain' on oneself, one could faintly distinguish an extremely faint cracking sound mixed into the midst of the thunderous crash!

The Winged Leopard clearly distinguished it. It let out a long, howling *awooo*, dropped beside the giant turtle, flipped it over, and inspected the plastron region. Soon, a tiny hairline crack caught its eye. Causing its fingers to stroke this crack as gently as if it were caressing a mother leopard's teat, a moment later, a joyous, prolonged howl burst from its throat, and it hopped on the spot several times, performing a dance filled with leopard-style flair!

Tossing its head, twisting its body, flapping its wings, extending its front and hind paws, and spinning its tail like a propeller, it executed various movements to vent the joy overflowing in its heart. After watching these wild, erratic motions for a long time, one somehow felt they bore a slight resemblance to human breakdancing!

"Damn, this leopard is simply legendary!"

"That forward-and-backward paw extension move is cute to the max!"

"I think it looks even cuter when it smiles!"

"If it were just an inch or two smaller, and its fangs weren't so prominent, it would simply be the cutest pet in the world!"

"Wake up! The Winged Leopard is a Level 5 magical beast!"

"There are all sorts of wonders in this vast world; to think a leopard's staple food is turtles, I've truly broadened my horizons!"

"What's so interesting about smashing turtles?! I want to see the Winged Leopard hunt crocodiles!"

"What kind of an idiot is the previous commenter? Crocodiles are also fierce beasts. With turtles available to hunt, why go after a crocodile and risk injury? Do you think the Winged Leopard is as stupid as you?"

"..."

Naturally, the Winged Leopard knew nothing of the bickering in the bullet comment stream. After cutting loose for a while to vent the excitement in its heart, it once again clamped the giant turtle in its jaws, shot into the sky, traced the exact same arc, and repeated the identical routine all over again!

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

Four...

At first, a few people in the live broadcast room were engaged in pointless arguments, but after a dozen minutes and the Winged Leopard repeating the action seven or eight times, the entire live broadcast room fell completely silent. All the viewers watched with inexplicable emotions as the leopard strove time and time again for its survival.

Its gaze was intensely focused, its movements mechanical and precise like an untiring machine, striving to ensure every impact struck precisely on the giant turtle's vulnerable spot. Clearly, repeatedly launching itself into the air imposed a heavy burden on its hundred-kilogram body, causing it to pant involuntarily. Yet every time it plummeted from the sky, without pausing to catch its breath, it would rush over with boundless hope, pressing close to the turtle's tail to check whether a crack had formed.

Inevitably, the result was disappointment every single time. Its gaze would dim, only for it to shake its head, rally its spirit, pick up the giant turtle once more, laboriously fly high into the sky, and hurl the creature back down onto that brown crystal!

Crack!

A piercingly crisp shattering sound rang out. The turtle shell, having been smashed over a dozen times, finally failed to withstand the strain. The moment the tail section of the plastron slammed into the brown crystal, it burst apart directly! The upper half of the entire turtle shell was covered in crisscrossing cracks, and before it even hit the ground, it shattered into numerous pieces, scattering and spinning through the air like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers! Only then did Catherine see that the soft tissue inside the giant turtle had long since been smashed into a pulp by the impacts, its head twisted into a mass of paste crushed inside the abdominal cavity, dead beyond a doubt.

Before she could even feel a sense of relief for the Winged Leopard, a powerful hyena, as robust as a bull, lunged out from an oblique angle beneath the cliff. Catching the spinning giant turtle mid-air like a frisbee, it landed, cast a glance back at the Winged Leopard, broke into a sprint on all fours, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

At that moment, the panting Winged Leopard had just touched the ground. It forced itself to break into a run, hoping to catch up to the hyena and snatch back its turtle, but like a toddler learning to walk, its front left paw tripped over its front right paw, sending it tumbling directly to the ground and rolling over several times! It lay flat on its back, its leopard face wearing a very, very exaggerated, joyful smile. Then, opening its foamy, exhausted jaws, it let out a roar filled with extreme grief and indignation!

Yet it didn't even manage to finish its howl! Lying flat on its back exposed far too many vulnerabilities. A massive shadow five meters tall suddenly enveloped it, and before it could make any move at all, an exceptionally sharp dagger thrust like a poisonous fang directly into its soft abdominal cavity, viciously ripping diagonally downward with malicious intent!

Amidst the Winged Leopard's agonizing struggles, its intestines, belly, testicles, stomach, and other organs spilled out in a messy jumble accompanied by a geyser of surging fresh blood. It let out a puppy-like shrill cry, straightened its upper body, glared fiercely at the human who had ambushed it, strained its remaining strength to flap its wings, dragged its spilling intestines forward for a few desperate steps, and finally collapsed onto the ground.

With lingering reluctance, the Winged Leopard cast one final look at this beautiful world before slowly closing its eyes.