Perception Boost

That day, a fine rain fell without end.

On the outskirts of Yangping Mountain, black riding boots caked in mud pushed through the bushes and stepped onto the soggy ground.

The one emerging from the bushes was a well-proportioned young man with slightly dark skin—or rather, calling him a youth would have been more fitting. His delicate face bore a pair of eyes with a steadiness far beyond his years.

He gripped an iron staff in his hand, had a dagger strapped to his calf, and even carried a short bow on his back. He was wrapped up tightly from head to toe, his gaze cautiously sweeping over the surrounding bushes and ancient trees from time to time.

"Lin Tou, Horned Eagles rarely appear in the forest during the day. They usually only rest in the trees at night. Wouldn't it be more suitable for us to come at night?"

Three more people emerged from behind the bushes. The young man at the front looked at the bow-bearing youth leading the way and spoke in a low voice.

"It would be easier at night, but Yangping Mountain is also far more dangerous after dark. With only four of us, it would be too risky."

Without turning his head, Lin Sheng looked up at the sky and added,

"This is the Horned Eagle mating season. They appear much more frequently during the day than usual. As long as we search carefully, it won't be too difficult."

He glanced at the three behind him. Ninth Squad was currently short on manpower, and several Body Tempering squad leaders were injured, so this time he had led them into Yangping Mountain to complete a mission.

Of course, they were only simple missions, all basically within Yangping Mountain's outer regions and not particularly dangerous.

In truth, Ninth Squad did not normally mobilize in full force for every mission. Unless the target was a pack of ferocious beasts or a relatively dangerous large ferocious beast, they generally completed missions in small teams.

Over the past two days, he had led the people behind him into the mountains twice to complete small missions. Both had been simple and easily finished.

Although this mission was more troublesome than the previous two, it would at most cost them a little more time.

As he walked, Lin Sheng's gaze occasionally swept toward the rear.

Ever since leaving Yangping Town and entering the mountains these past two days, he had vaguely sensed someone watching and following them from behind.

At first, he had thought it was Ma Long's people, or perhaps Ma Long himself. But later, judging from certain traces, he felt it was not Ma Long. It seemed more like Tian Hu or Wang Sanyang—or perhaps the two of them together.

On further thought, that possibility was quite likely. With the talent he had displayed, perhaps it would provoke Ma Long into making a move.

Tian Hu and Wang Sanyang following him in secret might have been precisely because they were waiting for Ma Long.

The struggle within Beast Hunter Hall might have been even fiercer than he had imagined.

Having figured out the crux of it, he did not pay much more attention to those behind him and instead focused on completing his mission.

At that moment, two figures were following at an unhurried pace two or three hundred meters away from Lin Sheng's squad.

"That Ma Long is cautious enough. The news has been out for days, yet he still hasn't made the slightest move."

Wang Sanyang spat on the ground and spoke with some regret.

"It is a pity. It seems Ma Long really is close to breaking through. He has been cultivating in seclusion these days, and even Third Squad has taken on far fewer missions than before."

Tian Hu nodded and said evenly.

"Forget it. Since he has no intention of acting, let this matter go. We can't keep wasting time on this. The key to my struggle with Chai Lu lies above us. Even if Ma Long successfully breaks through, it won't affect much."

"Fine."

Hearing this, Wang Sanyang could only nod unwillingly.

In fact, it had been his own suggestion that they secretly follow Lin Sheng into the mountains.

First, he was worried Ma Long would attack Lin Sheng. After all, Ninth Squad had finally produced a seedling with exceptional talent.

Second, he intended to use this opportunity to deal with Ma Long, preventing him from breaking through—or better yet, taking the chance to cripple his martial arts.

Under Beast Hunter Hall's rule that disciples were forbidden from attacking fellow disciples, if Ma Long attacked Lin Sheng now, they could use that as grounds to cripple him. Then no one would have anything to say.

Within Beast Hunter Hall, Hall Master Zhao Fang was fifty-three years old. He had entered late Muscle Forging many years ago, and with his strength, he was only one step away from entering the Blood Circulation realm. Yet that final step had remained impossible to cross.

A few years ago, while capturing the spirit beast Red-bellied Spirit Snake, he had suffered grave injuries. Though he later used precious medicine to heal, hidden injuries remained. Recently, those old injuries had flared up from time to time, and his condition was far worse than before. Thus, word had spread from above that once this beast tide passed, Zhao Fang would step down from his position as hall master.

When the time came, the most likely candidates for hall master would be the two vice hall masters, Tian Hu and Chai Lu.

Thus, the open and covert struggle between the two vice hall masters had become much more frequent than before.

Originally, Third Squad had followed Hall Master Zhao Fang. Now that Zhao Fang was about to step down, Third Squad was quite powerful within Beast Hunter Hall. Ma Long had also been in early Muscle Forging for many years and was not far from late Muscle Forging. Among the nine squad leaders, his strength ranked near the forefront.

Therefore, both Tian Hu and Chai Lu had tried to win Ma Long over. That was also why Ma Qiang had ended up in Ninth Squad.

But recently, Ma Long seemed to be leaning toward Chai Lu.

Coupled with what had happened to his younger brother this time, Ma Long would certainly no longer consider their side. So if they had the opportunity, they would not mind crippling Ma Long completely.

Unfortunately, the other party had not taken the bait.

Within Yangping Mountain, sharp cries rang out from atop an ancient tree.

Then an eagle's head poked out from amid the branches and leaves. Its head was shaped like a triangle, its two eagle eyes brownish-yellow and razor-sharp, while its pointed, curved beak was as long as a palm. Clearly, this eagle was not small.

An eagle with such a triangular head was precisely a Horned Eagle.

This Horned Eagle continued to cry out, as though calling for something. Before long, cries answered from the sky.

Within just a few breaths, a Horned Eagle with a wingspan nearing one and a half meters descended from the sky.

The Horned Eagle had thick plumage, its body covered in brightly colored feathers. It looked exceptionally majestic. It was clearly a male Horned Eagle.

The male Horned Eagle flew directly toward the female in the branches. The two Horned Eagles overlapped, low calls continuously escaping their beaks.

Just then, the sound of arrows slicing through the air rang out.

Several arrows shot toward the Horned Eagles.

But due to the distance, none of the arrows struck their targets.

Instead, they startled the two Horned Eagles. They hurriedly spread their wings and leaped into the sky.

Horned Eagles flew extremely fast. By the time the people on the ground tried to draw their bows and shoot again, it was already too late.

"Not good! Those two beasts are getting away! Horned Eagles are incredibly fast in flight. If we fail in one strike, it'll be difficult to keep them here again..."

Not far from the tree where the Horned Eagles were, a young hunter could not help crying out, his face full of anxiety.

Just then, another burst of wind-splitting sounds rang out.

The two Horned Eagles, just about to flap their wings and fly away, suddenly staggered. They beat their wings several times but could not regain their balance, inevitably falling toward the ground.

The hunters swiftly pinned them down.

Lin Sheng held the female Horned Eagle in his hand. On its left wing was a wound that pierced straight through, the size of a baby's fist, blood streaming from it in rivulets.

The other hunters quickly brought over the larger male Horned Eagle as well.

"Captain Lin, you're amazing! You actually managed to bring down both Horned Eagles."

The young hunter tightly gripped the Horned Eagle in his hands, his eyes filled with admiration as he looked at Lin Sheng.

This young hunter had an irregular scar from his shoulder to his neck. He was Xiao Shi, the hunter Lin Sheng had saved during the Honey Badger mission.

It had been a blessing in disguise. Because his injuries had not healed, he missed the Tusk Mountain Boar mission and kept his life.

Otherwise, with his meager strength, he would most likely have died during that mission against the Tusk Mountain Boar.

"It was only luck. Bring the things with us. Since the mission is complete, let's head down the mountain."

Lin Sheng shook his head slightly. Earlier, he had merely thrown a few pebbles.

Over the past few days, he had spent his free time studying the throwing technique manual he had received from Liu Jie. Coupled with his strength, even pebbles could unleash considerable killing power, making them especially suitable for dealing with Horned Eagles.

"Captain Lin, you're so strong, yet you're still so modest. If I could become as strong as you someday, that would be wonderful."

Xiao Shi was deeply convinced by Lin Sheng. During these trips into the mountains, they had encountered danger several times, but Lin Sheng had resolved each incident as easily as brushing away dust.

He was strong, had a good temperament, and was not arrogant and conceited like other geniuses. It was not only Xiao Shi; the other two also sincerely admired Lin Sheng.

"Martial Way cultivation requires taking one step at a time. Cultivate diligently, and one day you will achieve something."

Seeing Xiao Shi's fervent gaze, Lin Sheng spoke calmly. After saying that, he turned and walked down the mountain.

Xiao Shi and the others hurriedly followed. None of them noticed that at some point, Lin Sheng's palm had already sunk into the Horned Eagle's body.

Absorb Horned Eagle into the body?

A message appeared in Lin Sheng's mind. Without hesitation, he confirmed it with his thoughts.

As warm blood enveloped his palm, Lin Sheng felt the blood mist space in his consciousness begin to change. It quickly condensed into a lifelike Horned Eagle.

At the same time, he felt his vision abruptly shift, rapidly becoming much clearer.

On the branches of a large tree twenty meters away, several rice-grain-sized insects were crawling slowly. The patterns on their bodies closely resembled the color of the branches. An ordinary person would find them hard to spot even from just a few meters away without looking carefully, especially since these insects moved extremely slowly and were even harder to detect.

Yet at this moment, their movements were remarkably clear in his eyes.

Lin Sheng shifted his gaze farther back. In a clump of weeds a hundred meters away, a small gray-furred mouse lay hidden within. Its nimble body darted through the grass as though searching for something, while two meters behind it, a small black snake was slowly approaching with its tongue flicking.

Beyond that, there were even more little things he had not noticed before.

Even the sounds reaching his ears seemed to have been magnified many times.

This made Lin Sheng instinctively rub his ears.

"I didn't expect Perception Boost to be this obvious."

A smile appeared on his face. Over the past two days, he had hunted some wild beasts nearly every time he entered the mountains, but they had mostly been low- and mid-tier ordinary beasts with little offensive power. The boosts he gained had not been obvious.

They were basically boosts to strength, agility, and stamina, and their effects had been completely overwritten.

Today's Horned Eagle, however, had given him quite a surprise.

The effect after absorbing this Horned Eagle was simple. It had only one: Perception +2. Like the White Ape, it was an extremely specialized boost.

And these low-level strange beasts only held some value for him when they provided such specialized boosts.

Moreover, this Perception Boost was a direction of enhancement that had never appeared before.

Perception—what it enhanced was his ability to sense the surrounding environment.

He simply had not expected the effect to be so intense.

Fortunately, after more than a dozen breaths, Lin Sheng finally managed to adapt.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and began carefully feeling out the exact extent of Perception Boost 2.

"Vision has improved the most, probably more than doubled from before. Hearing is next, increased by around seventy to eighty percent. Smell is roughly the same as hearing. As for the other aspects, the improvement isn't especially obvious."

Lin Sheng pondered inwardly. Although the perception attribute did not act upon his physical body or directly enhance his combat power,

that did not mean the perception attribute was of little use. On the contrary, in his view, perception was in some ways no less valuable than attributes like strength and agility, and at times even surpassed them.

After all, perception allowed him to seize the initiative in many situations.

Although increased cultivation and breakthroughs in realm could strengthen the five senses to a certain extent, the enhancement was extremely limited.

At the very least, as a Body Tempering martial artist, he had not felt that his five senses were much stronger than an ordinary person's.

He had not yet entered the Muscle Forging realm, so he did not know about that. But even if he entered the Muscle Forging realm, he imagined it would not bring such a tremendous improvement in perception.

At that moment, Lin Sheng swept his gaze behind him and quickly caught sight of two figures hiding behind a distant tree. Who else could they be but Tian Hu and Wang Sanyang?

"So it really was them following me in secret."

The two were now exceptionally clear in his vision, and he could plainly see what they were doing.

Tian Hu stood with his hands behind his back, looking this way. Wang Sanyang, meanwhile, was absentmindedly teasing a wild rabbit he had caught from somewhere. There were still faint bloodstains around the wound on his shoulder, so it seemed his injury had not healed.

Lin Sheng focused his hearing and could even catch their faint conversation, though it was not entirely clear. After all, they were still rather far away.

Behind the tree.

"Hm?"

Tian Hu suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise.

"What is it, Boss?"

Wang Sanyang looked up at him with confusion on his face.

"That kid Lin Sheng seemed to have been looking this way just now. Could he have noticed something?"

Tian Hu rubbed his chin with his palm.

At those words, Wang Sanyang immediately looked toward Lin Sheng.

With his eyesight, from over three hundred meters away in this densely vegetated forest, he could only vaguely make out Lin Sheng and the others.

"No way. We're hiding this far away, and Yangping Mountain is full of birds and beasts. How could that kid possibly discover us? Boss, did you see wrong?"

"I probably did. Maybe there happened to be some small beast in that direction."

Tian Hu nodded. The thought had only flashed through his mind just then, and after voicing it, he did not believe it himself. From so far away, not to mention a Body Tempering martial artist, even someone at his level of great completion in Muscle Forging could not discover them without knowing in advance—unless Lin Sheng had eagle eyes. Otherwise, it was absolutely impossible.

"Alright, their mission is complete. There's no need for us to stay any longer. Let's head back first."

"Fine."

The two no longer lingered. Their figures nimbly headed down the mountain.

"They've left?"

On the other side, Lin Sheng watched the two figures depart in the distance and murmured quietly, feeling much more relaxed inside.

Being watched all the time these past two days had made him feel uncomfortable all over, and even affected his cultivation progress. The cultivation of the White Ape Leg Technique had inevitably been delayed, leaving him no choice but to focus his attention on the Raging Bull Fist.

Now that the two were no longer following him, he would not need to conceal himself so much.