Deep in the old forest, all was silent.
Sunlight filtered through dense, luxuriant branches and leaves into the mountains, bringing a trace of warmth to the dark, damp woods.
Chen Lin held his sword and moved forward cautiously.
As he ventured deeper into the mountain range, the surroundings gradually changed from deathly silent to increasingly noisy.
"Rustle~~"
A faint sound reached Chen Lin's ears.
Chen Lin immediately stopped and observed carefully.
"Heh!" Chen Lin stared ahead to his right, slowly raising the treasured sword in his hand.
From a patch of thornbushes not far away, a rustling sound grew clearer as it approached.
Chen Lin looked over and saw lean, black figures emerging one after another. They looked like a cross between wolves and foxes, larger than foxes but smaller than wolves. Their dark red eyes fixed coldly on Chen Lin.
"Fox Wolves?" Chen Lin's heart tightened as he silently cursed his bad luck.
These creatures possessed the cunning of foxes and the ferocity of wolves. They excelled at coordination, and their strength was roughly equivalent to that of early-stage Martial Apprentices. They were an exceptionally troublesome type of pack beast.
There were more than thirty Fox Wolves emerging from the thornbushes before him. Even Martial Master-level martial artists risked dying beneath their fangs if they did not take such a pack seriously.
Chen Lin took a deep breath, his eyes fixed tightly on the hostile pack of Fox Wolves before him.
Twenty meters away from Chen Lin, the Fox Wolves naturally spread apart and began encircling him in a fan-shaped formation.
Stared at by so many cold red eyes, even though Chen Lin believed himself powerful, he could not help feeling tense.
After all, this was his first time encountering the ferocious beasts of this world. Deep down, he was still somewhat unsure.
"Roar~~~"
A low, mournful cry came from the Fox Wolf at the rear of the pack.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh~~"
All the Fox Wolves instantly pounced in from every direction at once. Attacked by so many Fox Wolves equivalent to early-stage Martial Apprentices, even an ordinary martial artist with the strength of a Martial Master would not be able to withstand it.
Fortunately, Chen Lin was no ordinary Martial Master-level martial artist.
"Die!" Chen Lin swung the treasured sword in his hand with cold eyes.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The treasured sword was swift as the wind and fast as lightning.
The instant the sword swung out, the extended claws of a pouncing Fox Wolf were severed. Chen Lin thrust his sword forward, piercing its lower jaw and driving straight through its head.
"So sharp?" Chen Lin withdrew his sword and retreated, delight flashing through his eyes.
[Slaughter Points +0.8]
The instant the Fox Wolf died, information about gaining Slaughter Points flashed through Chen Lin's mind.
"0.8 for one. That's far more than killing a single livestock animal at the slaughterhouse. Leaving the city was indeed the right choice!" Chen Lin stared at the Fox Wolves with shining eyes, the last trace of tension in his heart replaced by excitement.
His figure flashed as Chen Lin charged forward with his sword once more.
Pfft!
Another Fox Wolf was killed on the spot.
These Fox Wolves were all seasoned killers in the outskirts of the Two Realms Mountain Range, but upon encountering a cautious Martial Master-level martial artist like Chen Lin, aside from causing him some trouble at the start, they were now simply delivering Slaughter Points to him for free.
Facing the Fox Wolves' fearless pounces and coordinated sneak attacks, Chen Lin concentrated fully. As he constantly shifted positions, he relied on the sharpness of his weapon to dispatch one Fox Wolf after another.
"Pfft, pfft..."
Fallen leaves whirled through the air, blood splashed everywhere, and one Fox Wolf after another collapsed to the ground without another sound.
Meanwhile, Chen Lin swung his sword faster and faster, more and more naturally and freely.
Under the pressure of the Fox Wolves' relentless attacks, Chen Lin's strength was constantly being wrung out of him. He rapidly adapted to his explosively increased power, and his control over his own strength and speed became increasingly precise.
If Chen Lin before entering the Two Realms Mountain Range could only unleash a little over eighty percent of his strength, then at this moment, after being continuously pushed to the limit, he could already unleash close to ninety percent of it.
"Roar!" A short, mournful howl rang out from the rear of the Fox Wolf pack, carrying traces of fear and fury.
Hearing it, the remaining Fox Wolves immediately turned and scattered in all directions.
Unwilling to let them go, Chen Lin pursued and killed several more, but in the end, he still let the cunning pack of Fox Wolves escape.
After steadying his breathing, Chen Lin began checking the Slaughter Points recorded in the Slaughter Jade Book.
[Slaughter Points: 21]
Chen Lin immediately beamed. The Slaughter Points gained this time were even greater than on his most profitable day at the slaughterhouse. He was utterly thrilled.
"The Two Realms Mountain Range truly is my blessed land!" Chen Lin muttered before striding deeper into the forest.
As for the Fox Wolf corpses he had just killed, Chen Lin could not be bothered to deal with them.
A Fox Wolf corpse could fetch a dozen or so taels of loose silver, but it was obviously unrealistic for him to carry them all away alone. And making another trip back to Nanqing City for a few dozen taels of loose silver would be an enormous waste of time—not worth it at all for him.
Unless he possessed an enormous storage artifact, situations like this would only become commonplace in the future.
Having arrived in the Two Realms Mountain Range, Chen Lin was like a dragon entering the sea, like a fish returning to water.
His practical combat experience continued to accumulate, his swordsmanship was greatly tempered, and he also gained quite a few Slaughter Points.
Four days passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, after Chen Lin arduously hunted down a Sabertooth Black Tiger with the strength of an early-stage Martial Master, he carried its corpse and quickly left the Two Realms Mountain Range.
Four days of hunting in the mountains had left Chen Lin looking like a wild man.
If he had not produced the identity jade token of a War God Temple member, getting into the city looking the way he did would have required quite a bit more explanation.
After entering Nanqing City, Chen Lin carried the Sabertooth Black Tiger straight to the slaughterhouse.
The Chen Clan operated many shops, including armor shops and butcher shops.
Most martial artists in the city liked selling their goods to shops owned by their own Lineage. The prices differed little anyway, and doing so both repaid the Lineage for its nurturing and supported its business—a win-win arrangement no one would refuse.
The moment Chen Lin entered the slaughterhouse, Dong Wu spotted him.
Although Chen Lin's hair was disheveled and, aside from the crucial areas, his clothes were either stained with blood or torn into strips of cloth, Dong Wu still recognized him at a glance from their time together.
Seeing the more than five-meter-long black Sabertooth Tiger being carried into the slaughterhouse by Chen Lin as though it were a sack of grain, Dong Wu immediately sprang up. His chubby face bloomed like a chrysanthemum as he hurried forward with great strides.
"Ah! Nephew Chen, only a few days have passed, yet your strength has grown even deeper! You only joined the War God Temple recently, and in just a few days you've hunted a black Sabertooth Tiger that even ordinary early-stage Martial Masters would not dare provoke lightly. Truly astonishing—what a delightful surprise!"
Chen Lin casually tossed the black Sabertooth Tiger onto the ground and said with a smile, "Uncle Dong, you flatter me. I was merely lucky. Take a look and give me a price!"
"Tsk, tsk, this was no luck! There isn't a single unnecessary wound on this Sabertooth Tiger. Every wound served its purpose. Impressive, truly impressive!" Dong Wu carefully inspected the black Sabertooth Tiger's corpse as he praised him. When he finished, he said to Chen Lin, "The corpse is fairly intact, and none of the wounds are too large. I can offer you six hundred and fifty taels of silver."
Chen Lin was not particularly surprised. He had worked slaughtering livestock at the slaughterhouse for nearly a month. He had not merely kept his head down and killed animals; he had also gotten a clear grasp of the basic market prices.
Dong Wu's offer was not the highest on the market, but neither was it low. Chen Lin was also someone who disliked trouble, and he could not be bothered to run around for a few taels of loose silver, so he decisively agreed.
After all, both he and the original owner of this body had benefited from the Chen Clan to some extent. He felt there was no need to haggle over a difference of a few taels of loose silver.
Taking the silver Dong Wu handed him, Chen Lin turned and hurried home.
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